Genetic susceptibility in complex diseases: genes involved in T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma development.

"Search for targeted therapies against specific molecular-genetic alterations in T-ALL/LBL".
This rare and aggressive cancer is currently treated with non-targeted chemotherapy protocols, which offer high survival rates. However, the therapy can produce toxicity, leading to its discontinuation, and offers very poor results in case of relapse, with survival rates of less than 10%, and only one drug specifically approved to date for such cases, Nelarabine.
In our group, the study of genetic and molecular alterations in T-ALL/LBL patients has allowed us to propose and demonstrate the efficacy of new therapeutic strategies for the treatment of T-ALL/LBL.
Thus, this project is based on the hypothesis that T-cell lymphoblastic neoplasms can be treated with a tumor-agnostic approach, whereby targeted treatments are used based on the particular alterations of each patient, beyond the classification of the tumor. In this way, the combination of standard therapy with additional targeted drugs could prove beneficial for patients, especially when they suffer from treatment-associated toxicity or are in relapse.
To carry out this project, we will use as a tool a cell line derived by our team from a T-ALL patient, which presents particular molecular-genetic alterations that serve as a rationale for testing targeted therapies. Our aim is to take advantage of the exhaustive knowledge of its alterations in order to explore personalized therapeutic options.