Ricerca Progetti nazionali, regionali, internazionaliNAZIONALIPRIN 2022Integrating cutting-edge tools

Integrating cutting-edge tools for targeted approach to patients with adrenocortical tumors (COOL-REACT)

The identification of precise biological and radiological markers is necessary to pick up adrenal tumors with harmful potential among many uneventful tumors, and predict the risk of relapse and the treatment response in ACC, with the aim to tailor treatment and improve patient-centered and large-scale economic outcomes. Given the steroid secreting potential of adrenal tumors, steroidomic is a useful approach to characterize them. Radiomics (an emerging technique aiming at finding associations between qualitative and quantitative radiological data) has shown potential in classification and grading of tumors, prediction of prognosis and treatment response. Only a few pilot small studies have applied radiomics to adrenal tumors.

Circulating biomarkers, like circulating free tumor DNA (cftDNA) and miRs (liquid biopsy) provide informative data reflecting tumor characteristics that can be integrated with clinical information, steroidomics and radiomics. Additionally, the characterization of the cellular and secretory microenvironment would be relevant for ACC stratification and prognostication, in addition to the molecular profiling of the tumor. Characterization of specific microenvironment profiles could also offer new potential targets for microenvironment-oriented anticancer therapies. Although it is biologically plausible that environmental pollutants may influence adrenal tumorigenesis, it is unknown whether subjects born or living in polluted areas may have a higher risk of adrenal tumors, in particular ACC, or a more aggressive course of disease. Potential exposure to environmental pollutants and smoking habits are never considered in the clinical decision making. Until now, no studies have assessed the potential of combining those novel cutting-edge techniques with clinical data and molecular information by highly performing computing systems, to implement the diagnosis and detection of disease progression in adrenal tumors.

The aims of the project are:

1) To develop innovative techniques for characterization and subtyping of adrenocortical tumors

2) To identify novel markers for recurrence, response to treatment and predictions of prognosis in ACC

3) To dissect the role of environmental agents (i.e. pollutants) on occurrence and biological behavior of adrenocortical tumors

4) To integrate demographic and clinical data with histopathological and “omic” data, to build a comprehensive predictive algorithm of outcomes for patients with adrenocortical tumors.

 

Data di avvio 16 Ottobre 2023

Data di completamento 16 Ottobre 2025

Total cost  €70469,00

 

Progetto 20222KAYY5 finanziato all’interno del Bando PRIN 2022 di cui al Decreto Direttoriale n. 104 del 02/02/2022 nell’ambito del Piano Nazionale di Ripresa e Resilienza, Missione 4 – Componente 2. Dalla Ricerca all’Impresa - Investimento 1.1 Fondo per il Programma Nazionale della Ricerca (PNR) e Progetti di Ricerca di Rilevante Interesse Nazionale (PRIN), finanziato dall’Unione europea – NextGenerationEU – CUP B53D23019810006