Targeted Therapy for Endometrial Cancer
Endometrial cancer is growing in prevalence in Australia. While for many people the survival prognosis of endometrial cancer is promising, one in four females develop particularly aggressive disease. We are working to establish new treatment options for these individuals.
What is the Problem?
Endometrial cancer (cancer of the lining of the uterus) is the most prevalent gynaecological cancer in Australia. While survival rates for females diagnosed with endometrial cancer are about 75% at five years, for one in four females, the prognosis is much worse. These people have an aggressive type of endometrial cancer that rapidly spreads throughout the body and can have a high risk of recurrence. Lack of treatment options remains a major challenge for those with these subtypes. A recent clinical trial has revealed that certain molecular subtypes of endometrial cancer respond poorly to the chemo- and radiotherapy. Identifying novel biomarkers and pathways is urgently warranted for targeted therapy in endometrial cancer.
What is our solution?
Our group have identified two genes, ROR1 and ROR2, that are associated with prognosis in people with endometrial cancer. In addition we are establishing reliable pre-clinical models representing molecular subtypes of endometrial cancer for future drug screening. To better translate into future clinical trials, we aim to develop reliable pre-clinical models derived from patient biospecimens to evaluate novel ROR1/2 targeting drugs in individual molecular subtypes.
Grant Funding
Enabling a precision medicine approach to endometrial cancer treatment via patient-derived organoid models.
Postdoctoral Fellow, Dongli Liu, was named one of the five recipients of UNSW’s 3Rs grant funding scheme in 2024. Read the UNSW article below.
New article
This exciting new research establishes the potential of ROR1 as an ideal drug target in endometrial cancer .
This article found significant upregulation of ROR1 in a cohort of 499 endometrial cancer cases. High ROR1 expression was found to correlate with a significant decrease in overall and progression-free survival.
Staff involved
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Dr Dongli Liu, BSc, MEng, PhD
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A/Prof. Caroline Ford, BSc(Hons), PhD
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Kirsty Brodbeck