C-MYC as a Biomarker for Tumor Sensitivity to Treatment with RNA Polymerase II Inhibition
AssigneeInstitute for Cancer Research d/b/a The Research Institute of Fox Chase Cancer Center
InventorsIgor Astsaturov, Vladimir Khazak, Ilya Serebriiski
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Abstract
Systems and methods for determining whether a cancer patient may respond to inhibition of RNA polymerase II as a treatment for the patient are provided. Inhibition of RNA polymerase II may be by way of chemotherapy with an agent such as triptolide, an analog of triptolide, or a prodrug form of triptolide. The cancer patient may be a pancreatic cancer patient, an ovarian cancer patient, a gastric cancer patient, or an esophageal cancer patient. The patient may have any cancer in which c-Myc is over-expressed or over-amplified.
Claims20
A method for treating a MYC-amplified tumor in a subject, comprising detecting overamplified levels of the c-Myc gene, overexpressed levels of c-MYC protein, or both overamplified levels of the c-Myc gene and overexpressed levels c-MYC protein in a cell isolated from the MYC-amplified tumor, then administering to the subject an effective amount of an inhibitor of the excision repair cross-complementing rodent repair deficiency, complementation group 3 (ERCC3) protein, thereby treating the MYC-amplified tumor.
A method for treating a pancreatic tumor in a subject, comprising detecting low levels of the c-Myc gene, low levels of c-MYC protein, or both low levels of the c-Myc gene and low levels c-MYC protein in a cell isolated from the pancreatic tumor, enhancing the expression of c-MYC protein in cancerous cells of the pancreas of the subject, then administering to the subject an effective amount of triptolide, an analog of triptolide, or a prodrug form of triptolide, thereby treating the pancreatic tumor.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.