Abstract LB-263: Analysis of microenvironment effects on pancreatic cancer biomarker expression using a novel method for FFPE RNA extraction

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related deaths. There are virtually no biomarkers to aid in early detection or predicting therapy response, newly diagnosed patients have less than a 7% 5-year survival rate and the median survival from the time of diagnosis is less than 12 months. Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) together with in vitro/in vivo functional studies is likely to identify and validate new biomarkers of PDAC onset, progression and therapy resistance. Importantly, the substantial archives of formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded (FFPE) samples from PDAC patients are likely to be a rich resource for linking molecular signatures to relevant clinical data. However, NGS methods on FFPE samples are severely hindered because extracting high-quality nucleic acid material from these samples is time-consuming and inefficient. We have sought to develop novel methods for improving the extraction of high-quality RNA from FFPE samples within the context of commercially-available FFPE RNA kits and protocols. Together with researchers and clinicians at Claremont BioSolutions, AntiCancer Inc. and UCSD our laboratory has developed a novel nucleic acid extraction method that significantly increases RNA yield and integrity from PDAC cell line and Patient-Derived Xenograft FFPE samples. By briefly ( Citation Format: Malachia Hoover, Yvess Adamian, Mark Brown, Ali A. Maawy, Robert Hoffman, Michael Bouvet, Robert Doebler, Jonathan A. Kelber. Analysis of microenvironment effects on pancreatic cancer biomarker expression using a novel method for FFPE RNA extraction. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-263.