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Dadasaheb B Akolkar

Dadasaheb B Akolkar
Datar Cancer Genetics Limited

Ph D

About

135
Publications
9,772
Reads
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291
Citations
Additional affiliations
August 2010 - October 2013
Invitrogen
Position
  • FAS
October 2013 - June 2020
Datar Cancer Genetics
Position
  • Managing Director
October 2006 - March 2010
The University of Tokyo
Position
  • PhD Student
Education
July 2018 - November 2019
Spanish National Cancer Research Centre
Field of study
  • Molecular Oncology
April 2006 - March 2010
The University of Tokyo
Field of study
  • Life Sciences

Publications

Publications (135)
Article
833 Background: Targeting signaling pathways in colorectal cancers is a common therapeutic strategy. In addition to targeted drugs, non- anticancer drugs approved for use in other health conditions can inhibit key pathways. De novo tumor transcriptome analysis can identify patient-specific up- and down-regulated transcripts, based on which the corr...
Article
838 Background: Gastrointestinal tract cancers exhibit considerable molecular heterogeneity, which requires a detailed understanding of their distinct genetic profiles. Understanding the gene expression of other genes along with Claudin 18 (CLDN18) could provide insights into their interactions. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of NGS...
Article
113 Background: Gastrointestinal cancers are among the most prevalent malignancies, often treated with chemotherapeutic agents whose efficacy and toxicity can be influenced by genetic variations. Pharmacogenetic testing for key metabolic genes, including DPYD, UGT1A1, and G6PD, can guide personalized treatment approaches. Methods: We analyzed sampl...
Article
e14675 Background: Allogenic tumor lysate therapies offer a novel approach in oncology, to initiate a measured immune system response to combat cancer. Loaded with tumor antigens, these lysates stimulate the patient's immune system for targeted cancer cell destruction. In vitro data suggesting efficacy is pivotal prior to clinical trials. Per-C-Vax...
Article
e15056 Background: Classical Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are defined as EPCAM+, PanCK+, CD45-, whereas, Circulating Tumor Associated Cells (CTACs) are defined as EPCAM+, PanCK+, CD45+/-. CTACs comprise a heterogenous mix of tumor-associated cells including classical CTCs, cancer stem cells, circulating micro-emboli, tumor cell fused macrophages...
Article
3054 Background: The advancements in automated High Content Analysis (HCA) for Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) detection necessitate the integration of high-throughput screening (HTS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to improve cancer diagnosis efficiency and accuracy. Traditional approaches to cancer detection have faced limitations in speed, cost,...
Article
e20602 Background: Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) exhibits a spectrum of molecular alterations that play a crucial role in understanding its heterogeneity and tailoring targeted therapies. Among these alterations, HER2 aberrations have gained significance as potential therapeutic targets. This study aims to explore the diversity of HER2 changes...
Article
Full-text available
Simple Summary Cancers of the pancreas, gallbladder and bile duct (pancreaticobiliary tract) are often aggressive with poor survival. However, these cancers are not easily identifiable or detected because of vague (non-specific) symptoms and the absence of accurate blood tests. The diagnosis of these cancers involves imaging or endoscopy followed b...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have historically been used for prognostication in oncology. We evaluate performance of liquid biopsy CTC assay as a diagnostic tool in suspected pancreaticobiliary cancers. The assay utilises functional enrichment of CTCs followed by immunofluorescent profiling of organ specific markers. Methods Multicentr...
Article
e18872 Background: Tumor Mutation Burden has been correlated with therapy outcomes in patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI). However, tumor specific TMB cut-offs are not well established in the Indian cohort. Genomic alterations are shown to be vital determinants of response, resistance, and hyper-progression post-ICI administration...
Article
e21201 Background: The primary objective of this study was to understand the co-occurrence of KRAS with other actionable drivers in Indian lung cancers patients, and to assess the utility of liquid biopsy in this cohort. Methods: We evaluated single nucleotide alterations, copy number alterations, and fusions in 507 tumor tissue and 1271 blood spec...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The low specificity of serum PSA resulting in the inability to effectively differentiate prostate cancer from benign prostate conditions is a persistent clinical challenge. The low sensitivity of serum PSA results in false negatives and can miss high-grade prostate cancers. We describe a non-invasive test for detection of prostate canc...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose The selection of safe and efficacious anticancer regimens for treatment of patients with broadly refractory metastatic cancers remains a clinical challenge. Such patients are often fatigued by toxicities of prior failed treatments and may have no further viable standard of care treatment options. Liquid Biopsy-based multi-analyte profiling...
Preprint
Backround Diagnosis of primary glial malignancies (GLI-M) in individuals presenting with Intracranial Space Occupying Lesions (ICSOL) is based on histopathological evaluation (HPE) of tissue obtained by surgical resection or biopsy with attendant resource implications and risks. Approximately 70% of ICSOLs have non-malignant etiology and distinctio...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The early detection of breast cancer (BrC) is associated with improved survival. We describe a blood-based breast cancer detection test based on functional enrichment of breast-adenocarcinoma-associated circulating tumor cells (BrAD-CTCs) and their identification via multiplexed fluorescence immunocytochemistry (ICC) profiling for GCDF...
Article
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Biomarker directed selection of targeted anti-neoplastic agents such as immune checkpoint inhibitors, small molecule inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies form an important aspect of cancer treatment. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of the tumor tissue is the method of choice to evaluate the presence of these biomarkers. However, a significant b...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Evaluation of serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) is a part of standard prostate cancer diagnostic work-up in symptomatic males as well as for elective prostate cancer screening in asymptomatic males. The low specificity of serum PSA leading to an inability to effectively differentiate prostate cancer from benign prostate conditions is...
Preprint
Full-text available
BACKGROUND Screening of asymptomatic women for early detection of Breast Cancer (BrC) is associated with improved survival. Presently, mammography is the standard of care (SoC) for BrC screening but has lower accuracy for invasive cancers as well as in women with higher breast tissue density. METHODS In this manuscript, we describe an accurate blo...
Preprint
Full-text available
Real time monitoring of disease status is an essential part of cancer management. The low sensitivity and specificity of serum markers and the constraints and risks associated with radiological scans prompt the need for accurate non-invasive means to monitor minimal residual disease (MRD) in solid tumors. In this study we describe MRD evaluation vi...
Preprint
Full-text available
Biomarker directed selection of targeted anti-neoplastic agents such as immune check-point inhibitors, small molecule inhibitors and monoclonal antibodies form an important aspect of cancer treatment. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) analysis of the tumor tissue is the method of choice to evaluate the presence of these biomarkers. However, a significant...
Preprint
Full-text available
Abstarct Prior attempts at personalizing anticancer treatments based on univariate tumor profiling (‘single gene variant’) for selection of monotherapy with targeted agents (‘single drug’) have generally yielded poor response rates. We report findings from the LIQUID IMPACT pilot trial where Multi-analyte Liquid Biopsy (MLB) profiling of circulatin...
Article
Full-text available
Angiogenesis inhibitors (AGI) are not presently used for the treatment of gastric cancers. This report demonstrates that angiogenesis inhibitor can be safely and effectively used in combination with cytotoxic anti-cancer agents for treatment of Gastric cancers.
Preprint
We report a case of an advanced refractory Gastric AD which responded favourably to a combination regimen of AGI and other chemotherapy agents which were selected on the basis of multi-analyte tumor profiling. The treatment was well tolerated with transient manageable adverse events and yielded radiological partial response.
Article
Full-text available
Background: Angiogenic factors are commonly activated in solid tumors and present a viable therapeutic target. However, anticancer treatment with angiogenesis inhibitors (AGI) is limited to a few cancers, mostly as monotherapy and not selected based on molecular indications. We aimed to determine whether patient-specific combination regimens with A...
Article
3047 Background: Immunohistochemistry (IHC) profiling of tumor tissue is the present standard for evaluation of therapeutically relevant biomarkers such as ER, PR, HER2, AR, ARv7, PD-L1 and MMR for selection of targeted, endocrine and checkpoint inhibitor therapy selection. However, this critical analysis is dependent on availability of tumor tissu...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Activation of the mTOR signaling pathway is ubiquitous in cancers and a favourable therapeutic target. However, presently approved mTOR inhibitor monotherapies have modest benefits in labeled indications while poor outcomes have been reported for mTOR inhibitor monotherapy when administered in a label-agnostic setting based on univariat...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Angiogenic factors are commonly activated in solid tumors and present a viable therapeutic target. However, anticancer treatment with angiogenesis inhibitors (AGI) is limited to a few cancers, mostly as monotherapy and not selected based on molecular indications. We aimed to determine whether patient-specific combination regimens with AG...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: Encyclopedic Tumor Analysis (ETA) is multi-analyte, molecular and functional interrogation to identify latent vulnerabilities in solid tumors which can then be targeted in organ-and label-agnostic combination treatment regimens. Case Presentation: We describe here a case of metastatic rectal cancer in a 61-year-old male who was progre...
Conference Paper
Background: Common modalities for breast cancer screening include self-breast examination (SBE) for detection of palpable lumps as well as Mammography scans for detection of suspicious nodules or masses. While both approaches have low specificity, SBE has lower sensitivity for early stage cancers while mammography is associated with radiation expos...
Conference Paper
Background: Despite the development of Checkpoint Inhibitor Treatments (Immunotherapy) and Targeted anticancer agents, cytotoxic (chemotherapy) agents remain the mainstay of breast cancer treatments. However, treatment failure is often encountered in breast cancers owing to innate or acquired chemoresistance. Real time monitoring of inherent or inc...
Conference Paper
Background: trucheckTM is a non-invasive micro-biopsy-like approach for diagnostic triaging of symptomatic individuals suspected of Breast Cancer. trucheckTM is based on the detection of Circulating Ensembles of Tumor Associated Cells (C-ETACs: EpCAM⁺, Pan-CK⁺, CD45±) of Breast Cancer origin (GCDFP15⁺, GATA3⁺); such C-ETACs are ubiquitous in blood...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Diagnosis of lung cancer in suspected individuals is based on histopathological examination (HPE) of tumor tissue obtained by an invasive biopsy. However, lung biopsies are associated with various procedural risks and may often not be possible owing to anatomical considerations as well as patient co-morbidities. It is also estimated tha...
Article
Full-text available
We present data on analytical validation of the multigene variant profiling assay (CellDx) to provide actionable indications for selection of targeted and immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) therapy in solid tumors. CellDx includes Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) profiling of gene variants in a targeted 452-gene panel as well as status of total Tumo...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose Selection of cytotoxic chemotherapy agents (CCA) based on pre-treatment evaluation of drug sensitivities is a desirable but unmet goal for personalized anticancer treatment strategies. Prior attempts to correlate in vitro Chemo-Response Profiles (CRP) of tumor explants or Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) with clinical outcomes have been large...
Article
Full-text available
24 Background: Trucheck is a non-invasive approach for diagnostic triaging of symptomatic individuals who are suspected of Colorectal Cancer (CRC) and have been advised an invasive biopsy. Trucheck evaluates blood samples for presence of Circulating Ensembles of Tumor Associated Cells (C-ETACs: EpCAM ⁺ , Pan-CK ⁺ , CD45 ± ) originating from a prima...
Article
Full-text available
Ovarian cancer is common gynaecological malignancy and a leading cause of death among women. Despite the advances in treatment strategies, majority of patients present with recurrence after first- or second-line treatment. Targeted therapy that has proven to be effective in other advanced or metastatic solid tumors have also demonstrated its effica...
Article
Full-text available
Periampullary adenocarcinomas are rare neoplasm that originates from the pancreatic head, the ampulla of vater, the distal bile duct or the duodenum. Surgical resection followed by adjuvant therapy is considered as the standard of care treatment for these carcinomas. Despite several advances in diagnostics and therapeutics, only 5% of these patient...
Article
The diagnosis of Central Nervous System (CNS) malignancies such as Gliomas in individuals presenting with Intracranial Space Occupying Lesions (ICSOL) is based on histopathological examination (HPE) of tumor tissue obtained by an invasive brain biopsy. However, brain biopsies are resource intensive and are associated with procedural risks such as h...
Article
Full-text available
Background Histopathologic examination (HPE) of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsy is the standard for cancer diagnosis but is resource‐intensive and has been associated with procedural risks. The authors demonstrate that immunocytochemistry (ICC) profiling of circulating ensembles of tumor‐associated cells (C‐ETACs) can noninvasively provide...
Article
Full-text available
We have previously shown that circulating ensembles of tumor-associated cells (C-ETACs) are a systemic hallmark of cancer based on analysis of blood samples from 16,134 individuals including 10,625 asymptomatic individuals and 5,509 diagnosed cases of cancer. C-ETACs were ubiquitously (90%) detected across all cancer types and were rare (3.6%) amon...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background LIQUID IMPACT (CTRI/2019/02/017548) is a single arm, open label, phase II/III study to evaluate the feasibility of providing therapeutic guidance in cancers based on non-invasive interrogation of circulating tumor analytes in peripheral blood (Encyclopedic Liquid Biopsy: eLB). The study enrolled patients with solid organ cancers where th...
Conference Paper
p>Differential diagnosis of prostatic adenocarcinomas is based on histopathologic analysis of tumor tissue obtained by transrectal ultrasound (TRUS)-guided biopsies. However, such invasive biopsies are associated with pain, procedural expenses, sequelae, and risk of complications. Though immunocytochemistry (ICC) profiling of circulating tumor cell...
Conference Paper
p>Definitive diagnosis of solid organ cancers is based on histopathologic analysis of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsies. However, invasive biopsies are associated with procedural expenses, sequelae, and risks. Though immunocytochemistry (ICC) profiling of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been previously attempted for diagnosis in some ca...
Conference Paper
The success of treatment in solid organ cancers is ascertained by radiologic imaging as per standard-of-care protocol, with PET-CT being the modality of choice. However, even in cases where complete resolution of the disease is noted radiologically, recurrence or emergence of new metastases is not uncommon. To explore the underlying cause of such r...
Conference Paper
Diagnosis of ovarian adenocarcinomas is based on histopathologic analysis of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsies. However, invasive biopsies are associated with procedural expenses, sequelae, and risk of complications. Though immunocytochemistry (ICC) profiling of circulating tumor cells (CTCs, defined as EpCAM+, panCK+, CD45-) has been prev...
Conference Paper
p>Diagnosis of suspected cases of gliomas such as intracranial space-occupying lesions (ICSOLs) is based on histopathologic analysis of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsies, which are, however, associated with risk of serious complication, high rates of mortality, procedural expenses, sequelae, and other risks. Liquid biopsy (LB)-based noninv...
Conference Paper
Background: Diagnosis and treatment of breast cancers is based on histopathological analysis of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsies. However invasive biopsies cause pain, anxiety and carry the risk of needle seeding. Though Immunocytochemistry (ICC) profiling of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs, defined as EpCAM+, panCK+, CD45-) has been previo...
Article
e15624 Background: Treatment of advanced refractory cancers face challenges in non-availability of systemic therapy regimens with evidenced benefit. Post failure of two to three lines of systemic treatments, patients with such cancers are usually considered for palliation or clinical trials. Prior attempts at label-agnostic treatment regimens (prec...
Article
3544 Background: There are presently no accepted non-invasive means for detection of cancers in asymptomatic individuals or suspected cases. Radiological and serological investigations, though non-invasive, are not confirmatory and necessitate an invasive biopsy to establish malignant status of suspected findings. Invasive biopsies, in turn, face c...
Article
e15623 Background: Tumor tissue profiling following invasive biopsies is presently the standard approach for indication-based therapy management in solid organ cancers. However, challenges in biopsy are traditionally described due to proximity to vital organs, or patients’ co-morbidities or unwillingness for an invasive procedure. Liquid biopsies f...
Article
3525 Background: Despite the development of targeted therapy agents and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI), cytotoxic anticancer agents remain the mainstay of treatment in several solid organ cancers. However, instances of innate and acquired resistance towards these anticancer agents can lead to treatment failures, which remain undetectable until...
Article
Background: Post failure of 3 lines of systemic treatments in breast cancers, Standard of Care guidelines recommend palliative care or clinical trials for such patients. We retrospectively evaluated the efficacy of ultra-personalized treatment in a cohort of patients (n = 27) with advanced refractory breast cancers. These patients had availed of En...
Article
718 Background: Detection of genitourinary cancers is based on histopathological analysis of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsies following manifestation of clinical or radiological symptoms. There is presently no non-invasive blood-based test with high specificity and sensitivity for detection of genitourinary cancers. Considering that unpro...
Conference Paper
Background: Mammographic screening for breast cancer offers the possibility of reducing morbidity and mortality from the disease but has economic and safety implications. Thromboembolism is a well-recognized, potentially life-threatening complication of cancer. Detection and characterization of tumour emboli comprising Circulating Ensembles of Tumo...
Conference Paper
Background: Chemoresistance in cancer cells is the underlying reason for treatment failure. Real-time monitoring of chemoresistance and response (CRR) is a fundamental but unmet prerequisite of precision oncology. Repetitive invasive biopsies to obtain tumor tissue for in-vitro CRR profiling are neither feasible nor advisable. Circulating Tumor Ass...
Conference Paper
Oncological orthodoxy holds that (metastatic) breast cancer is an incurable disease. Response evaluation in metastatic breast cancer is determined by clinical, biochemical and radiological parameters, FDG PET CT being the imaging modality of choice for most types of breast cancer. However, even in cases where FDG PET CT and/or normalisation of seru...
Article
Full-text available
36 Background: Selection of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICI) therapies in Head and Neck cancers are based on IHC based detection of PD-L1 expression in tumor tissue. Invasive biopsy to obtain tumor tissue for IHC is associated with procedural risks, sequelae and expenses. Prior efforts at PD-L1 profiling of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) have been...
Article
Full-text available
29 Background: Selection of Immune Checkpoint Inhibitor (ICI) therapies in Gastroesophageal cancers are based on IHC based detection of PD-L1 expression in tumor tissue. Invasive biopsy to obtain tumor tissue for IHC is associated with procedural risks, sequelae and expenses. Prior efforts at PD-L1 profiling of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) have b...
Article
194 Background: Resistance to combination regimens of fluorouracil, oxaliplatin and irinotecan are commonly observed in Colorectal cancers (CRC). There are presently no viable approaches for ‘real-time’ monitoring of innate and acquired chemoresistance. We used a novel method for chemo-interrogation (CI) by harvesting from peripheral blood sufficie...
Article
808 Background: CEA and CA19-9 are non-specific markers for Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers. Molecular analysis of fecal blood is of limited utility in colorectal cancers. A non-invasive pan-GI-cancer blood-based test with high specificity and sensitivity is an unmet medical need. Considering that unprovoked thromboembolism is a significant risk in m...
Article
799 Background: Definitive diagnosis of gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies is reliant on histopathological examination of tumor tissue obtained by invasive biopsies. However, invasive biopsies are associated with procedural risks, complications and expenses. A non-invasive technique for diagnosis of GI cancers is presently unavailable. Here we pres...