Ex Vivo Drug Screening Informed Targeted Therapy for Metastatic Parotid Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Genomics
• Pharmacology

Background:

• Precision oncology aims to personalize cancer treatment using patient-specific data.
• Ex vivo drug screening offers a functional method to predict therapy response.
• Rare cancers like metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of the parotid gland present unique treatment challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess therapy efficacy using an integrated multiomics ex vivo drug screening approach.
• To inform treatment strategies for a patient with rare metastatic squamous cell carcinoma after standard options failed.
• To demonstrate the utility of serial ex vivo drug screening for guiding adjuvant therapy.

Main Methods:

• Isolation of tumor cells from patient lymph node and subcutaneous metastases.
• Imaging-based single-cell resolution drug screening.
• Reverse-phase protein array (RPPA)-based drug screening assays.
• Validation of drug targets using histopathology, genomic profiling, and in vitro cell biology.

Main Results:

• Ex vivo screening identified potential drug targets.
• Targeted treatments based on ex vivo findings achieved durable clinical responses.
• HER2 was identified as a potential therapeutic target in this patient's cancer.

Conclusions:

• Integrated multiomics ex vivo drug screening can effectively model therapy efficacy.
• Serial ex vivo screening can guide adjuvant therapy decisions during treatment.
• HER2 may be a viable therapeutic target for metastatic squamous cell carcinoma of salivary glands.