ALCMI-006: A Prospective Biospecimen Collection Study From Patients With ROS1-Fusion Positive Tumors

ROS1-fusions occur in several cancer types such as non-small cell lung cancer, gastric cancer, ovarian cancer, glioblastoma, cholangiocarcinoma and melanoma. In each of these cancers, ROS1-fusions account for a small sliver of the pie, accounting for 1-2% of all diagnoses, forming a relatively rare molecular subset of cancer. The Addario Lung Cancer Medical Institute (ALCMI) would like to focus on this under-studied rare molecular subset of cancer to understand how cancer begins and spreads in these tumors, how these tumors respond to treatment and what happens when tumors stop responding to treatment. Therefore, in collaboration with cancer patients whose tumors have ROS1-fusions (known as the "ROS1ders"), we are studying ROS1-fusions across all cancer types. Patient Derived Xenografts (PDXs) are models to study cancer. These models are developed by injecting a fresh piece of tumor specimen from a patient into a special type of mouse, which then acts as 'host' to allow the tumor to grow. Peer-reviewed and published experimental studies have shown that PDX models can maintain features similar to the original tumor from the patient. PDX models can be used to study tumor growth, response to anti-cancer therapies, and resistance to anti-cancer therapies. The purpose of this study is to develop up to 24 PDX models for ROS1-fusion driven cancers to be used for research purposes only. That is, these patient derived PDX models will have no immediate benefit to the patient from whom the tumor specimen was obtained. Rather, these PDX models will be used to inform the study of ROS1-fusion driven cancers at large.