Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Matthias Dürst
ONCGNOSTICS 2017-2021
Not every pre-cancer progresses to cancer, yet most cervical pre-cancers are treated by surgery. Particularly among women <30 years it is estimated that about 60% of the lesions resolve by themselves. Aim of this multicenter, prospective observational study is to determine the prognostic value of the methylation marker panel (GynTect®) at the point of histopathological diagnosis. It is postulated that GynTect®-negative women have a high probability for lesion regression whereas GynTect®-positive women will show persistence or progression.
Principal investigators: Prof. Dr. Ingo B. Runnebaum, Prof. Dr. Matthias Dürst
BMBF (Infectognostics) 2017 - 2020
Projektleiterin: Prof. Dr. Britta Qualmann
DFG 2020-2020
The overall aim of this consortium, to improve the diagnostic possibilities for the detection of cervical and ovarian cancer by automation of existing assays (GynTect®) and by developing novel assays (OvarScreen) could be achieved. DNA methylation is characteristic for carcinogenesis and represents a highly specific and sensitive tool for cancer diagnostics. An OvarScreen marker panel could be identified and validated using genomic DNA from tissue and cell free DNA (cfDNA) from blood. The three top candidate markers reached 85-95% specificity and 41-60% sensitivity.
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Principal investigator: Prof. Dr. Matthias Dürst
BMBF 2016-2020
This multicenter, prospective observational study with 445 patients has shown that HPV-DNA integrants as molecular markers are absolutely tumor specific. The observed lack of sensitivity for the detection of recurrent disease by use of these markers is mainly due their heterogeneous intratumoral distribution. Post hoc analyses have shown that the rate of recurrence is significantly higher among patients with HPV integrants compared to patients without integration. Moreover, the much lower integration frequency in pre-cancers versus cervical cancers underscores the role of HPV integration in carcinogenesis.
Principal investigators: Dr. Claudia Backsch, Prof. Dr. Matthias Dürst, Prof. Dr. Ingo B. Runnebaum
Brigitte und Dr. Konstanze Wegener-Stiftung 2018 - 2020
Previous functional in vitro analyses using 2D- and 3D- cell culture provide evidence for ITIH5 possessing tumor suppressive properties. Aim of this study was the investigation of tumor-stroma-interactions and effects of different cytostatic agents like cisplatin and paclitaxel under the influence of ITIH5 using three different cervical carcinoma cell-specific 3D tumor spheroid models. ITIH5 affects e.g. release of matrix metalloproteinases 2 and 9, however had no influence on the effect of the cytostatics tested so far.
