Osteosarcoma
Osteosarcoma is the most common primary bone cancer in adolescents and young adults, affecting 3.4 people per million every year1. There is an urgent clinical unmet need to improve prognosis with the 5 year survival rate being 60% overall and 27% in metastatic disease2. At the Myrovlytis Trust we are bringing together osteosarcoma experts to rapidly bringing novel and effective therapies from the laboratory to the clinic to improve the prognosis of those living with osteosarcoma.
What is Osteosarcoma?
Osteosarcoma is a fast-growing cancer which most frequently arises at the ends of arm and leg bones, in an area known as the metaphysis. Bone growth is regulated by cells called osteoclasts and osteoblasts, which work together to keep bones healthy. Osteoclasts remove old bone, while osteoblasts make new bone. In osteosarcoma, the communication between these cells is disrupted resulting in the osteoclasts destroying healthy bone and leading to tumor growth3.
The standard treatment for osteosarcoma is chemotherapy and surgery. Although the introduction of chemotherapy in the 1970’s increased the five-year survival from 20% to 60%, since then there has been minimal change to survival 4-6. In addition, those with refractory disease have few alternative treatment options. There is an urgent need to identify new therapies and tailor treatment to the individual patient.
For further information on symptoms, diagnosis, and management of osteosarcoma please visit the Bone Cancer Research Trust.
Predicting Response to Treatment
The Myrovlytis Trust is embarking on a major new stream of research using state-of-the-art machine learning technology to develop predictive models of patients’ response to therapy. We will be collaborating with researchers and clinicians worldwide, using large data sets and the predictive power of artificial intelligence to determine whether a patient with osteosarcoma will respond to chemotherapy. This tool will ensure patients’ will not have toxic therapy which is of no benefit to them. However, knowing whether a patient responds to chemotherapy is not enough, we need to identify alternative treatments. We aim to further develop our platform to identify novel markers in osteosarcoma at both the proteomic and genomic level, which can be targeted for therapy.
Please contact us at contact@myrovlytistrust.org if you are interested in being involved.
Immunotherapy
The Myrovlytis Trust will be funding innovative and ambitious projects looking at harnessing the immune system to treat osteosarcoma. Our priority areas include oncolytic viral therapies, chimeric antigen receptor T (CAR-T) cell therapies and natural killer (NK) cell therapies, and we are actively exploring opportunities to advance research towards the clinic in these areas. We are interested in funding collaborative, multidisciplinary teams to drive forward immunotherapy research from the laboratory to the patient.
Please contact us at contact@myrovlytistrust.org if you are interested in being involved.
What is Immunotherapy?
References
1. Misaghi A, Goldin A, Awad M, Kulidjian AA. Osteosarcoma: a comprehensive review. SICOT-J [Internet]. 2018 [cited 2021 Mar 5];4:12. Available from: /pmc/articles/PMC5890448/
2. American Cancer Society. Survival Rates for Osteosarcoma [Internet]. 2021 Jan 25 [cited 2021 Dec 21] Available from: https://www.cancer.org/cancer/osteosarcoma/detection-diagnosis-staging/survival-rates.html#:~:text=The%20SEER%20database%20tracks%205-year%20relative%20survival%20rates,groups%20cancers%20into%20localized%2C%20regional%2C%20and%20distant%20stages%3A
3. Corre I, Verrecchia F, Crenn V, Redini F, Trichet V. The Osteosarcoma Microenvironment: A Complex But Targetable Ecosystem [Internet]. Vol. 9, Cells. NLM (Medline); 2020 [cited 2021 Mar 5]. Available from: /pmc/articles/PMC7226971/
4. Eilber F, Giuliano A, Eckardt J, Patterson K, Moseley S, Goodnight J. Adjuvant chemotherapy for osteosarcoma: A randomized prospective trial. J Clin Oncol [Internet]. 1987 [cited 2021 Mar 2];5(1):21–6. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3543236/
5. Harvei S, Solheim Ø. The prognosis in osteosarcoma: Norwegian national data. Cancer [Internet]. 1981 [cited 2021 Mar 2];48(8):1719–23. Available from: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6945144/
6. Yu D, Zhang S, Feng A, Xu D, Zhu Q, Mao Y, et al. Methotrexate, doxorubicin, and cisplatinum regimen is still the preferred option for osteosarcoma chemotherapy: A meta-analysis and clinical observation [Internet]. Vol. 98, Medicine (United States). Lippincott Williams and Wilkins; 2019 [cited 2021 Mar 2]. Available from: /pmc/articles/PMC6531127/
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