Timeframe: 2021 – 2022
Goal: Model development
Principal Investigator: Mark Yarchoan, MD, Associate Professor, Oncology/Division of GI Malignancies, Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center
Efforts to identify novel therapies for FLC have been confounded by a lack of preclinical models that accurately reflect the genetics and biology of the disease. This study aims to establish and validate an orthotopic, syngeneic, preclinical mouse model of FLC that faithfully recapitulate human FLC. Because the tumors in such models grow in the context of an intact immune system, they are therefore appropriate models to study agents that act on the host immune system to enhance tumor immunity such as checkpoint inhibitors. The resulting preclinical model of FLC will be openly shared with the larger research community. If successful, this model will offer unprecedented opportunities to investigate mechanisms underlying FLC pathogenesis, and will become a critical tool for investigating novel therapeutic strategies in FLC.