The long-term survival for high-risk neuroblastoma (NB) patients is lower than 50%. The occurrence of secondary tumors (metastases) fundamentally determines survival. Today, no available therapeutics successfully target metastases in NB. Common metastatic sites for NB are bone marrow and bone, followed by lymph nodes and the liver. Importantly metastatic spread patterns are different between various cancer types. Since metastatic progression is a non-random event, this strongly suggests that only tumor cells with specific capabilities can form metastases. We hypothesize that (i) these capabilities differ for metastatic tumor formation in bone marrow-, liver, and lung, and (ii) to cure children with metastatic NB, we will have to consider the metastatic sites and develop metastatic site-directed therapies. The project aims to reveal potential therapeutic target molecules on metastatic tumor cells (MTCs) by characterizing and comparing bone marrow, liver, and lung MTCs using unique NB patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) and CRISPR /Cas9 system.
The research group is based at BMC, Lund University, within a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary research environment. It comprises four PhD students, one postdoctoral researcher, and a part-time technician as well as a clinical pathologist. The group has full access to Lund University core facilities.
Catharina Hagerling
Catharina.hagerling@med.lu.se