Assessing Proliferative Potential of Cancers by Immunohistochemical Analysis

Cancer arises from inappropriate expansion of one single cell that has lost controls of both replication and natural cell death. Replication and cell death are normally controlled by the balance between positive and negative cell cycle regulators, and not by a single cell cycle regulator.

There is no diagnostic test currently on the market that assays the balance between positive and negative regulators. An in situ functional assay - one that reveals where in the cell cycle a given precancerous or cancer cell is ─ is sorely needed for guiding therapy.

Investigators at the Weill Cornell Medical College, led by Drs. Selina Chen-Kiang and Scott Ely, have developed a panel of immunohistochemical tests that functions as such an assay and can inform clinicians whether cancer cells are quiescent, have the potential to begin active proliferation or have already begun active proliferation. This allows an objective assessment of tumor aggressiveness and can guide therapy. The tests can predict, on a patient by patient basis, which cell cycle-directed drugs should be most efficacious and which patients are at the greatest risk for rapid tumor growth.

The tests employ standard methods and commercially available reagents. The assays can be performed on virtually any type of specimen (e.g. blood or an aspirate, an endoscopic biopsy, a large resection, a decalcified bone marrow). The novelty lies in the combination of reagents, allowing for the analysis of specific subpopulations of cells and excluding others.

Potential Commercial Applications

• Diagnostic for sub-classifying solid tumors and blood cancers
• Theranostic for solid tumors and blood cancers