Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most prevalent and deadly tumours in both men and women worldwide. An RNAi screening on 214 potential oncogenes described by the TCGA was performed and STARD3 was identified as potential theranostic target in mCRC. Considering the effects on cell viability and the druggability, STARD3 represents a strong candidate as a valid diagnostic and therapeutic target for mCRC patients.
In recent years, organoids have become a research hotspot, showing a significant potential in the biological analysis of tumours. Patient derived organoids could be a viable platform to test clinically available drugs and/or promising new molecules to explore tumour sensitivity in an ex-vivo model.
This is a longitudinal observational study on CRC patients derived tissues to verify the overexpression of STARD3 in both early and advanced CRC patients, to identify the pathways underpinning tumorigenesis and cancer progression in which STARD3 is involved through the development of cancer derived organoids, to explore its role as a dynamic biomarker of treatment response and to demonstrate its part in treatment sensitivity measured in tumour derived organoids compared to drug sensitivity observed in real-world patients.
