Activity Detail
Seminar
Mechanisms of drug response and resistance to improve cancer therapies
Marco Piva
Treatment options for metastatic cancers have increased exponentially in the last decades, although most of them present limitations. Targeted therapies display clinical activity in the majority of patients, but appearance of resistance is almost universal and impacts long-term survival. Immunotherapy has revolutionized the treatment landscape of several solid malignancies, reporting unprecedented durable response, however, response rate varies depending on cancer histology and it is generally low. Understanding the mechanisms of difference forms of resistance (innate, adaptive, acquired) is crucial to develop novel treatment combinations or treatment regimens. Here, using patient samples, in vitro and in vivo models from different cancers we dissect mechanisms of cancer progression and response to treatment to build rationales for more precise combinatorial therapies.