Abstract
BACKGROUND
Glioblastoma are incurable primary tumors of the central nervous system. The standard of care for newly diagnosed glioblastoma outside clinical trials includes a combination of radiation therapy, alkylating chemotherapy and tumor-treating fields. Yet, for progressive glioblastoma, only lomustine is registered in Europe. The REGOMA trial (Lombardi et al., Lancet Oncol 2019) had investigated regorafenib versus lomustine in a phase 2-trial. Furthermore, the use of regorafenib in a compassionate-use-program was recently reported (Tzaridis et al., Neuro Oncol 2019) Yet, the regorafenib arm in the Glioblastoma Adaptive Global Innovative Learning Environment (GBM Agile) master protocol was stopped after an interim analysis that showed a low probability of improvement of overall survival compared with control (press release 21 September 2022). We investigated here a functional genomics-based approach to discover and validate potential modulators of response to regorafenib treatment in experimental glioma in vitro, in vivo and ex vivo.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
We performed CRISPR/Cas9 activation (Calabrese P65-HSF activation library) and knockout (genome-wide knockout library Brunello) screens during treatment with regorafenib, sequenced and analyzed the genomic DNA of the remaining cells.
RESULTS
We discovered functionally-instructed molecular hits, designed a drug library for further validation by functional assays in vitro and combination treatments in murine glioma models in vivo.
CONCLUSION
Taken together, we discovered and validated functionally-instructed combination treatment options involving regorafenib. Our finalized results will be presented.