PI: Zhiqing Huang, MD PhD
Modern cancer research has been focused on how the tumor microenvironment (TME) affects cancer cell growth. This project’s purpose was to observe how the presence of the periostin (POSTN) protein as well as ascites in the TME affect the chemosensitivity of ovarian cancer cells, with the expectation that their presence would decrease chemosensitivity. This project was conducted by growing two lines of fibroblasts, one with and one without the POSTN gene; this produced medium that both contained and didn’t contain the POSTN protein. Ovarian cancer cells were then grown in this conditioned medium, along with ascites and an assay was performed to determine how growth in ascites and POSTN affected chemosensitivity after chemotherapy was administered to the tumor cells. Preliminary results from this project show that when cancer cells were grown in ascites, the presence of POSTN did decrease chemosensitivity after the administration of chemotherapy. These results support previously conducted research into the effects of POSTN on the chemosensitivity of cancer cell types. These results can be used to provide better therapies for ovarian cancer. Understanding how the TME affects tumor growth can lead to more targeted treatment of ovarian cancer based on what is present in a patient’s TME.
