BC Cancer Agency
Vancouver, British Columbia
PRAME alterations in DLBCL: Clinical and functional significance
Lymphomas are the 5th most common cancers in Canada. The current standard of care in many B cell lymphomas consists of chemotherapy and therapeutic monoclonal antibodies, and has significantly improved patient outcomes over the past 15 years. A large proportion of patients, however, suffer from refractory or relapsed disease. Therefore, the development of new therapeutic strategies for these patients represents an important unmet clinical need. We will investigate the roles of a new gene, PRAME, which is frequently deleted in patient’s tumors. However, the functional role of PRAME down regulation remains unknown. We will study how these deletions lead to lymphoma formation and how tumor cells escape from the patients’ own immune system surveillance, thus aiding in the development of new therapeutic avenues to simultaneously treat the tumor and the host.