RI-MUHC Annual Report

RI-MUHC ANNUAL REPORT 2022

YEAR IN REVIEW

CANCER RESEARCH PROGRAM (CRP)

RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

A new gene at the origin of some cases of ovarian cancer

For the first time, a research team led by Dr. Patricia Tonin linked mutations in the FANCI gene to the risk of developing ovarian cancer. Their findings show that a mutation in this gene is more common in ovarian cancer patients with a family history of ovarian cancer than in cancer-free people, suggesting that it may influence the risk of developing that cancer. This work lays the foundation for further studies to inform medical genetic screening practices for managing risk and ovarian cancer. (Genome Medicine)

Innovative device developed for gastroenterostomy bypass

Dr. Yen-I Chen leads the M-EPASS pilot study investigating a new approach to gastric outlet obstruction, a frequent complication of pancreatic cancer. His research team developed an innovative procedure: an ultrasound-guided double balloon to perform gastroenterostomy bypass. Results of the pilot study published in February 2022 show that M-EPASS appears to facilitate the technique of endoscopic ultrasound-guided gastroenterostomy (EUS-GE), potentially enhancing its safety and clinical adoption. (Endoscopy)

Left to right: Dr. Patricia Tonin, principal investigator, and Caitlin Fierheller, PhD candidate and first author of the Genome Medicine study; and Dr. Yen-I Chen, principal investigator of the M-EPASS pilot study — Left to right: Dr. Patricia Tonin, principal investigator, and Caitlin Fierheller, PhD candidate and first author of the *Genome Medicine* study; and Dr. Yen-I Chen, principal investigator of the M-EPASS pilot study

Critical finding for cancer immune therapy

Led by Ian Watson, PhD, a study featured on the cover of Science Immunology seeks to improve the treatment of melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. With collaborators from across Canada and the U.S., the team’s innovative approach highlights the relevance of the position of immune cells within the melanoma to inform on a patient's response to immune therapy. This ground-breaking work uses imaging mass cytometry, a new technique that retains spatial information about cell distribution in cancerous tumours. The results could improve prediction of melanoma patients’ response to immune therapy and offer insights that will guide personalized therapeutic approaches.

Dr. Ian Watson, principal investigator of a study published in Science Immunology: Using imaging mass cytometry technology on melanoma tissue slides, the research group generated spatial graphs depicting the organization of the tumour micro-environment. They observed that the proximity of cytotoxic T-cells (orange nodes) to melanoma cells (red nodes) is associated with a better response to immune therapy. — Dr. Ian Watson, principal investigator of a study published in *Science Immunology*: Using imaging mass cytometry technology on melanoma tissue slides, the research group generated spatial graphs depicting the organization of the tumour micro-environment. They observed that the proximity of cytotoxic T-cells (orange nodes) to melanoma cells (red nodes) is associated with a better response to immune therapy.

Selected CRP Program news links

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Prisca Bustamante, Thupten Tsering, Jacqueline Coblentz, Christina Mastromonaco, Mohamed Abdouh, Cristina Fonseca, Rita P. Proença, Nadya Blanchard, Claude Laure Dugé, Rafaella Atherino Schmidt Andujar, Emma Youhnovska, Miguel N. Burnier, Sonia A. Callejo, Julia V. Burnier. Circulating tumor DNA tracking through driver mutations as a liquid biopsy-based biomarker for uveal melanoma. Journal of Experimental Clinical Cancer Res. 2021 Jun 16; 40(1):196. doi: 10.1186/s13046-021-01984-w.

Gautier Marcq, Luis Souhami, Fabio Luis B. Cury, Afsar Salimi, Armen G. Aprikian, Simon M. Tanguay, Marie Vanhuyse, Raghu D. Rajan, Fadi Brimo, José João C. Mansure, Wassim Kassouf. Phase 1 Trial of Atezolizumab Plus Trimodal Therapy in Patients With Localized Muscle-Invasive Bladder Cancer. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. 2021 Jul 1; 110(3):738-741. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2020.12.033.

Yogesh M. Bramhecha, Karl-Philippe Guérard, Étienne Audet-Walsh, Shaghayegh Rouzbeh, Ola Kassem, Erwan Pernet, Eleonora Scarlata, Lucie Hamel, Fadi Brimo, Maziar Divangahi, Armen G. Aprikian, Simone Chevalier, Vincent Giguère, Jacques Lapointe. Fatty acid oxidation enzyme Δ3, Δ2-enoyl-CoA isomerase 1 (ECI1) drives aggressive tumor phenotype and predicts poor clinical outcome in prostate cancer patients. Oncogene. 2022 May; 41(20):2798-2810. doi: 10.1038/s41388-022-02276-z.

Masakazu Hashimoto, John David Konda, Stephanie Perrino, Maria Celia Fernandez, Andrew M. Lowy, Pnina Brodt. Targeting the IGF-Axis Potentiates Immunotherapy for Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Liver Metastases by Altering the Immunosuppressive Microenvironment. Mol Cancer Ther. 2021 Dec; 20(12):2469-2482. doi: 10.1158/1535-7163.MCT-20-0144.

Abdenour Nabid, Nathalie Carrier, Eric Vigneault, Thu Van Nguyen, PeterVavassis, Marc-André Brassard, Boris Bahoric, Robert Archambault, François Vincent, Redouane Bettahar, Derek Wilke, Luis Souhami. Optimizing Treatment in Intermediate-Risk Prostate Cancer: Secondary Analysis of a Randomized Phase 3 Trial. International Journal of Radiation Oncology Biology Physics. 2021 Nov 1; 111(3):732-740. doi: 10.1016/j.ijrobp.2021.04.013.

Jun Tian, Vivian Wei Wang, Ni Wang, Baharak Khadang, Julien Boudreault, Khldoun Bakdounes, Suhad Ali, Jean Jacques Lebrun. Identification of MFGE8 and KLK5/7 as mediators of breast tumorigenesis and resistance to COX-2 inhibition. Breast Cancer Res. 2021 Feb 15; 23(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s13058-021-01401-2.

Hossein Naseri, Kamran Kafi, Sonia R. Skamene, Marwan Tolba, Mame Daro Faye, Paul S. Ramia, Julia Khriguian, John Kildea. Development of a generalizable natural language processing pipeline to extract physician-reported pain from clinical reports: Generated using publicly-available datasets and tested on institutional clinical reports for cancer patients with bone metastases. J Biomed Inform. 2021 Aug; 120:103864. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103864.

Shu Xing, Ives R. Levesque. A simulation study of cell size and volume fraction mapping for tissue with two underlying cell populations using diffusion-weighted MRI. Magnetic Resonance in Medicine. 2021 Aug; 86(2):1029-1044. doi: 10.1002/mrm.28694.

Yehonatan Nevo, Sarah Arjah, Amit Katz, Jose Luis Ramírez García Luna, Jonathan D. Spicer, Jonathan J. Cools-Lartigue, Carmen Leandra Mueller, Liane S. Feldman, Lorenzo Ferri. ERAS 2.0: Continued Refinement of an Established Enhanced Recovery Protocol for Esophagectomy. Annals of Surgical Oncology. 2021 Sep; 28(9):4850-4858. doi: 10.1245/s10434-021-09854-7.

Miran Rada, Migmar Tsamchoe, Audrey Kapelanski-Lamoureux, Nour Hassan, Jessica Bloom, Stephanie Petrillo, Diane H. Kim, Anthoula Lazaris,, Peter Metrakos. Cancer Cells Promote Phenotypic Alterations in Hepatocytes at the Edge of Cancer Cell Nests to Facilitate Vessel Co-Option Establishment in Colorectal Cancer Liver Metastases. Cancers (Basel). 2022 Mar 4; 14(5):1318. doi: 10.3390/cancers14051318.

Sylvie D. Lambert, Ekaterina Loban, Jane Li, Tracy Nghiem, Jamie Lynn Schaffler, Christine Maheu, Sylvie Dubois, Nathalie Folch, Elisa Gélinas-Phaneuf, Andréa Maria Laizner. Chronic Illness Management in Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Patients: Exploring the Needs, Access, and Understanding of Information. Qualitative Health Research. 2021 Nov;31(13):2426-2439. doi: 10.1177/10497323211040769.

Xiaoyang Liu, Farhad Maleki, Nikesh Muthukrishnan, Katie L. Ovens, Shaohui Huang, Almudena Pérez Lara, Griselda Teresa Romero-Sanchez, Sahir Rai Bhatnagar, Avishek Chatterjee, Marc Philippe Pusztaszeri, Alan Spatz, Gerald Batist, Seyedmehdi Payabvash, Stefan P Haider, Amit Mahajan, Caroline Reinhold, Behzad Forghani, Brian O'Sullivan, Eugene Yu, Reza Forghani. Site-Specific Variation in Radiomic Features of Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Impact on Machine Learning Models. Cancers (Basel). 2021 Jul 24; 13(15):3723. doi: 10.3390/cancers13153723.