Clinical Research Directory

Characterization of Biophysical Stromal Properties in Human Cancer: Towards Personalized Computational Oncology

Drug delivery in solid tumors, whether administered systemically or locoregionally, is hindered by an elevated interstitial fluid pressure (IFP). Stromal targeting therapies are in active development, aiming to enhance drug transport after systemic or locoregional delivery. To date, no clinical methods are available to quantify tumor biophysical properties (including IFP). The investigators aim to use a combination of dynamic contrast enhanced MRI and computational fluid modeling (CFD) to measure stromal IFP in patients with pancreatic cancer and in patients with ovarian or colonic peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC). Computational data will be correlated with therapy response, platinum drug penetration, and invasively measured biophysical parameters after intravenous (pancreas) or intraperitoneal (ovarian/colonic PC) administration of a platinum compound. This would be the first in depth clinical study addressing this important topic, and could pave the way to developing personalized computational based treatment approaches aimed at targeting the biophysical environment of the tumor stroma in order to enhance cancer drug delivery.

Inferior Epigastric Lymp Node (IELN) Basin as a Possible Systemic Metastatic Pathway of Ovarian Peritoneal Metastases

The IELN basin could represent a primary LN relay for systemic metastatic dissemination in patients with OPM. This newly described lymphatic pathway of metastatic dissemination of OPM may be involved in certain presentations of peritoneal dissemination. The presence of invaded IELN may represent a new biomarker predictive of the pattern of progression of OPM and a related risk for systemic dissemination.