Genomic Instability based analysis of drugable targets in Head and Neck Cancer:
Tumor tissue for an ex vivo pilot study

Prognosis in head and neck cancer has not improved significantly and remains
poor for patients with locally advanced disease, despite intensive treatment.
We developed a method to determine the degree of genomic instability of tumors.
Using mRNA expression patterns of 407 head and neck squamous cell carcinomas
(HNSCC), we demonstrated that HNSCCs are highly instable compared to normal
mucosa and that there is a wide range in genomic instability between tumors. In
normal cells, a high degree of genomic instability results in apoptosis. We
identified genes which overexpression is highly correlated with genomic
instability. We hypothesize that overexpression of these genes is a coping
strategy to survive genomic instability. Inhibition of these targets therefore
may have a potent antitumor activity. We would like to evaluate the clinical
relevance of these targets in head and neck cancer in an ex vivo model, using
patient derived tumor tissue. Therefore feasibility of the ex vivo model should
be tested in HNSCC.

if at least 50% of the obtained tumor samples will be viable and proliferating
after 14 days (i.e. proliferation rate at day 14 is at least 50% of the
proliferation rate at day 0), the ex vivo model will be considered as feasible

prospective collection of fresh tumor tissue to test feasibility of an ex vivo
tumor model

no significant additional burden or risks are to be expected when additional
0.5 cm3 tumor tissue is removed during routine surgical resection or staging
endoscopy under general anaesthesia in which diagnostic biopsies are routinely
taken.
Patients do not derive benefit prom participation in this study. We hope that
this study contributes to development of new treatment strategies for future
patients.