Investigation of possible relationship between angiogenic gene expression and osteosarcoma treatment

• Grant number: 07/02694-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2008
• End date: September 30, 2009
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Medical Clinics
• Principal Investigator: Silvia Regina Caminada de Toledo
• Grantee: Patrícia Candido Barros Pavoni Ferreira
• Host Institution: Departamento de Morfologia. Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

AbstractOsteosarcoma (OS) is a malignant bone tumor and among the bone tumors it presents the highest incidence in adolescents. The presence of metastasis is a strong predictive factor, and the patients with pulmonary metastasis at diagnosis have poor overall survival in 5 years, around 32%. Despite the successful use of multiple chemotherapy agents in the osteosarcoma treatment, the desease still in a plateau. Recent studies have had the objective to identify biological alterations that can be used as prognostics therapeutical factors and drug targets. Angiogenesis is the process that generated new blood vessels. The tumoral growth and the production of metastasis are dependents of angiogenesis. The endothelial cells are responsible for the formation of the new vessels. Therefore, a new strategy of treatment, metronomic chemotherapy, will manages cytotoxic drugs in lower doses and more frequently, that can inducing specific angiogenesis process inhibitors, as thrombospondin 1 (TSP1), angiotastin and endostatin and inhibiting its inductors, as VEGF, VEGFR, SDF1 and PDGF-C. The administration of lower doses of cytotoxic drugs has the objective to control the process of angiogenesis not allowing its proliferation and thus, trying to prevent the formation metastatic process. The objective of this study is to investigate if there is a relationship between angiogenic process and osteosarcoma behavior. In this study will be analyze expression of these genes in the tumor and blood in different moments of the treatment using QRT-PCR and ELISA. In the end, we are looking for good prognosis markers and therapeutic targets.