Project 466589

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are rare cancers that come from muscles, fat, and cartilage. Half of all patients have metastases, which are tumours that grow in another part of the body. In STS, metastases often grow in the lung where usually the only treatment possible is chemotherapy, which is toxic and not a cure. Immunotherapy, which teaches white blood cells (WBC) to kill the tumour, is ineffective but has promise. In other cancers, the WBC type within the tumour plays a role in the effectiveness of immunotherapy. Our lab found that STS patients who had WBCs with certain anti-tumour traits within the tumour where the cancer starts had a better chance at survival. There are differences between where the cancer starts and where it spreads, so there is a need to study the WBCs around the lung metastases, to develop better immunotherapies. Our study aims to know the WBCs in STS lung metastases and how they differ from where the cancer first arose. To determine this, I will first stain archived tissues from both sites with probes for specific proteins. I plan to detect proteins from each type of WBCs with an in-depth look at types known to help tumour growth in other cancers. These probes will tell us what WBC types are present and the number of each type will be used for comparison between the two tissues. We will then extract RNA from these tissues and use computer programs to find what type of WBCs are present and compare genetic traits between the two tissues. To confirm our data, tissues collected after surgery will be stained with similar probes from the archived tissues but use a precise laser-based method. Knowing the WBCs present in the lung metastases will ultimately help develop better immunotherapies which could cure patients with metastatic STS.