Overcoming Drug Resistance Mechanisms
A major focus of our lab has been to identify molecular mechanisms responsible for drug resistance. Our group has been among the first to characterize the resistance to anti-VEGF therapies in renal cell carcinoma as a transient phenomenon likely due to epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition and driven by epigenetic changes. More recently, we have reported the role of YAP in cisplatin resistance in patient-derived xenograft models of bladder cancer.
Key Publications
- Hammers HJ, Verheul HM, Salumbides B, Sharma R, Rudek M, Jaspers J, Shah P, Ellis L, Shen L, Paesante S, Dykema K, Furge K, Teh BT, Netto G, Pili R. Reversible epithelial to mesenchymal transition and acquired resistance to sunitinib in patients with renal cell carcinoma: evidence from a xenograft study. Mol Cancer Ther. 2010 Jun;9(6):1525-35. PMID: 20501804
- Adelaiye R, Ciamporcero E, Miles KM, Sotomayor P, Bard J, Tsompana M, Conroy D, Shen L, Ramakrishnan S, Ku SY, Orillion A, Prey J, Fetterly G, Buck M, Chintala S, Bjarnason GA, Pili R. Sunitinib dose escalation overcomes transient resistance in clear cell renal cell carcinoma and is associated with epigenetic modifications. Mol Cancer Ther. 2015 Feb;14(2):513-22. PMID: 25519701
- Buck MJ, Raaijmakers LM, Ramakrishnan S, Wang D, Valiyaparambil S, Liu S, Nowak NJ, Pili R. Alterations in chromatin accessibility and DNA methylation in clear cell renal cell carcinoma. Oncogene. 2014 Oct 9;33(41):4961-5. PMID: 24186201
- Ciamporcero E, Shen H, Ramakrishnan S, Yu Ku S, Chintala S, Shen L, Adelaiye R, Miles KM, Ullio C, Pizzimenti S, Daga M, Azabdaftari G, Attwood K, Johnson C, Zhang J, Barrera G, Pili R. YAP activation protects urothelial cell carcinoma from treatment-induced DNA damage. Oncogene. 2015 Jun 29. PMID: 26119935