Novel Diagnostics Program

The application of ‘omics’ technologies to cancer has revealed the full extent of the molecular heterogeneity of this disease and brought into question the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to therapy. Our challenge now is to exploit the wealth of molecular knowledge stemming from ‘omics’ projects, to develop innovative clinical tools for the personalized management of cancer. The Novel Diagnostics Program strives to do just this through projects aimed at mining profiles generated in the lab to identify and, eventually, validate novel tumor markers for the diagnosis, prognosis, stratification, and therapy response prediction in cancer patients.The program is equipped with cutting-edge technological platforms and experienced research staff dedicated to the screening and clinical validation of candidate markers in large patient cohorts, statistical analyses to develop cancer risk models, validation studies in pre-clinical models, and assay optimization to increase transferability to the clinic. Close ties between the Program and the IEO clinical divisions ensure that the Program addresses the most pressing unmet clinical needs, and also facilitate the clinical development of novel tests by allowing access to patient cohorts and the setup of clinical trials.

Current activities of the Novel Diagnostics Program are focused on the identification and validation of biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic and therapeutic stratification in breast, prostate, bladder and lung cancers, with a special focus on the characterization and clinical validation of biomarkers based on the biology of cancer stem cells.