Molecular markers of bone sarcomas

Osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma are malignant bone tumors mainly affecting children and young adults, with a high tendency to metastasize. Although significant improvements in prognosis have been made for patients with localized tumors, prognosis for patients with metastasis at diagnosis remains grim. Our research group aims to contribute to a) to a deeper understanding of the biology underlying metastasis, in order to facilitate the development of therapeutic agents that specifically counteract cell dissemination in these tumors and b) the identification of genetic markers which are associated with the specific clinical characteristics of individual patients, and are therefore implicated in the onset and progression of these sarcomas.

Research projects:

1) Identification of new molecular markers for the invasive and metastatic phenotypes of osteosarcoma and Ewing's sarcoma.

 2) Identification of polymorphic variants of candidate genes potentially involved in the development and progression of sarcomas; analysis of the correlations between genotype and phenotype; implications in prognosis.

Ongoing research objectives:

 Bioinformatic analysis of gene expression data, both available in public databases and obtained, through molecular profiling techniques, from biological patient samples .

 Role of polymorphic variants of genes involved in the development and progression of Ewing's sarcoma and implications for prognosis.

Collaborators

Doctor Katia Scotlandi