The overall goals of this core is to provide a centralized resource for acquisition, logging, processing, storage and analysis of plasma samples and tissues biopsies.
Specific aims of this core are: 1) To provide a centralized facility to support standardized ancillary studies for several human clinical trials, canine trial, and rodent studies and examine tissue and plasma-based parameters related to tumor hypoxia, angiogenesis, and acidosis. 2) Plasma/serum samples will be analyzed for key markers of hypoxia and angiogenic activity. Tissues will be used for for immunohistochemical evaluation of the hypoxia-regulated protein, CAIX (carbonic anhydrase, isoform IX), microvessel density, and in situ measurement of tissue lactate concentrations using bioluminescence imaging. These efforts will support ancillary studies of five human trials in Project 5, canine trial in Project 4 and rodent studies in Project 3. 3) Gene expression analysis will also be used to assess changes in gene expression early in the course of therapy to ascertain which types of genes are altered in response to therapies involving combinations of hyperthermia with radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Gene array analysis will be performed on tissues obtained from human and canine patients enrolled in clinical trials. Statistical analysis of these results will be done in the Biostatistics and Information Sciences core. This core will be directed by Dr. Vujaskovic, who already coordinates these activities on a regularly scheduled basis. The core will provide the necessary infrastructure to make these essential efforts in the program cost-effective, streamlined, and standardized.
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