Progress to Date
Kirsten’s Legacy, TGen’s premier Adrenocortical Carcinoma (ACC) Research Program, supports the nation’s most comprehensive research and clinical studies of this all to often fatal disease.
Since its inception in 2006, our scientists have made significant strides toward understanding ACC and developing strategies to treat this rare cancer.
The program analyzes ACC tumors, benign tumors and normal tissue using the latest technologies and methods available in search of genetic changes that can help researchers design new diagnostic tests and drug therapies, which could help identify the cancer before it spreads and lead to a prolonged, higher-quality life.
TGen researchers recently completed the first whole genome sequencing of an ACC tumor — a first for this disease. TGen also houses one of the world’s largest frozen ACC tissue banks, including dozens of ACC tumor samples, benign adrenal tumor samples, and normal adrenal samples for use in comparisons. These samples eventually will undergo state-of-the-art sequencing.
TGen also plans to develop new ACC cell lines that will be used to study potential therapeutic targets.
Program Milestones Include:
- First in the world to open Phase III, ACC-specific, multi-site clinical trial of OSI-906 at one of the largest ACC sites in the country;
- Experimental results from the TGen ACC team resulted in the initiation of Phase I studies of an Eg-5 inhibitor and PLK-1 antagonist;
- Developed a valuable bank of relevant tissue samples: 62 ACC tumor samples, 29 benign adrenal tumor samples, and 26 normal adrenal samples;
- Generated two messenger RNA (mRNA) expression-profiling data sets, two array CGH data sets, one SNP data set, and one miRNA data set from patient tumor samples;
- Generated sufficient preliminary data to support the award of an institutional research pilot grant funded by the American Cancer Society.
