conferred by Ministero della salute
- 2020
- Esophageal adenocarcinoma is an increasingly common cancer with a poor prognosis that almost always develops in
metaplastic Barrett's esophagus. SerpinB3, an anti-apoptotic and pro-proliferative molecule, has been found to be abnormally expressed in esophageal cancer of patients with worst survival. The goals of our study will be i) to evaluate the
expression of SerpinB3 in the context of experimental inflammatory esophageal carcinogenesis and ii) to test the inhibitory
effect of a newly identified compound. If positive results will be obtained, toxicity studies will be carried out, paving the way
to phase I studies.
Moreover, to assess the possible use of SerpinB3 as prognostic marker of esophageal cancer progression, nanobodybased
molecular tracers targeting SerpinB3 will be developed and tested i) in experimental animals and ii) in a large cohort
of Barret's esophagus and dysplasia archived specimens.
