Silvia Calabuig-Fariñas

• PhD
• Researcher at Consorcio Hospital General Universitario de Valencia

Background/Objectives: Angiogenesis is involved in the pathogenesis of hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia (HHT). VEGF, ANG2, TGFβ1, and ENG are the most studied angiogenic factors, but their clinical significance in blood samples is still not completely defined. The genetic study of HHT mutations is the test of choice for diagnosing the disease,...

The treatment of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients has significantly improved with recent therapeutic strategies; however, many patients still do not benefit from them. As a result, new treatment approaches are urgently needed. In this study, we evaluated the antitumor efficacy of co-targeting G9a and DNMT1 enzymes and its potential as a...

Immunotherapy has opened new avenues of treatment for patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) without previous hope of survival. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of patients benefit from it, and it is still not well understood which tumor characteristics can be used to predict immunotherapy response. As the key cellular effe...

Background KRAS- mutant non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) shows a relatively low response rate to chemotherapy, immunotherapy and KRAS -G12C selective inhibitors, leading to short median progression-free survival, and overall survival. The MET receptor tyrosine kinase (c- MET ), the cognate receptor of hepatocyte growth factor (HGF), was reported...

Immunotherapy has been proven a viable treatment option for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) treatment in patients. However, some patients still do not benefit. Finding new predictive biomarkers for immunocheckpoint inhibitor (ICI) response will improve treatment management in the clinical routine. In this regard, liquid biopsy is a useful and no...

Despite the durable responses provided by the introduction of checkpoint inhibitors in advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) without actionable targets in a subset of patients, a large proportion of them will progress after immunotherapy. Programmed Death Ligand 1 (PD-L1) was the first biomarker approved for immunotherapy, although it has mul...

Background: Mutations and deregulations in components of the Hedgehog (Hh) pathway have been associated with cancer onset and tumor growth in different malignancies, but their role in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains unclear. This study aims to investigate the expression pattern of the main components of the Hh pathway in tumor and adjac...

Lung cancer is a malignant disease with high mortality and poor prognosis, frequently diagnosed at advanced stages. Nowadays, immense progress in treatment has been achieved. However, the present scenario continues to be critical, and a full comprehension of tumor progression mechanisms is required, with exosomes being potentially relevant players....

Desmoplastic infantile astrocytoma (DIA) is rare, cystic and solid tumor of infants usually found in superficial cerebral hemispheres. Although DIA is usually benign, uncommon cases bearing malignant histological and aggressive clinical features have been described in the literature. We report a newborn patient who was diagnosed with a DIA and died...

Breast cancer constitutes the most common malignant neoplasm in women around the world. Approximately 12% of patients are diagnosed with metastatic stage, and between 5 and 30% of early or locally advanced BC patients will relapse, making it an incurable disease. PD-L1 ligation is an immune inhibitory molecule of the activation of T cells, playing...

Simple Summary Circulating tumor DNA profiling by next-generation sequencing (NGS) is becoming essential for guiding targeted therapies. However, it remains challenging. Here, we show that variant allele fraction and the median of absolute values of all pairwise differences impact the agreement between digital PCR and NGS calls. Therefore, we propo...

Introduction: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have demonstrated clinical efficacy in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients (p). However, ICIs can also trigger a self-reactive response in the adjacent healthy lung tissue that can eventually lead to life-threatening immune-related adverse events (irAEs), like checkpoint inhibitor pneumoniti...

Despite impressive and durable responses, non‐small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with anaplastic lymphoma kinase inhibitors (ALK‐Is) ultimately progress due to development of resistance. Here, we have evaluated the clinical utility of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) profiling by next‐generation sequencing (NGS) upon disease progression....

Simple Summary Apart from genetic changes, cancer is characterized by epigenetic alterations, which indicate modifications in the DNA (such as DNA methylation) and histones (such as methylation and acetylation), as well as gene expression regulation by non-coding (nc)RNAs. These changes can be used in biological fluids (liquid biopsies) for diagnos...

Despite the success of immunotherapies in lung cancer, development of new biomarkers for patient selection is urgently needed. This study aims to explore minimally invasive approaches to characterize circulating T cell receptor beta chain (TCR-β) repertoire in a cohort of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients treated with first-line...

Lung cancer is one of the highest incidence cancer types worldwide and one with the lowest 5-year survival rate of all cancer types. Despite recent insights into lung cancer pathobiology, including novel biomarker-targeted therapies and immunotherapies, most of lung patients are diagnosed at late stages with limited and ineffective treatments. Ther...

Background: The human gut harbors around 1013-1014 microorganisms, collectively referred to as gut microbiota. Recent studies have found that the gut microbiota may have an impact on the interaction between immune regulation and anti-cancer immunotherapies. Methods: In order to characterize the diversity and composition of commensal microbiota a...

Objectives: To explore the pathophysiology of proliferative verrucous leucoplakia (PVL) through a methylated DNA immunoprecipitation and high-throughput sequencing (MeDIP-seq) case-control study. Materials and methods: Oral biopsies from ten PVL patients and five healthy individuals were obtained and used to compare their epigenetic patterns. Ne...

Triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a heterogeneous disease representing about 15% of all breast cancers. TNBC are usually high-grade histological tumors, and are generally more aggressive and difficult to treat due to the lack of targeted therapies available, and chemotherapy remains the standard treatment. There is a close relationship betwee...

Two-dimensional (2D) in vitro cell cultures and laboratory animals have been used traditionally as the gold-standard preclinical cancer model systems. However, for cancer stem cell (CSC) studies, they exhibit notable limitations on simulating native environment, which depreciate their translatability for clinical development purposes. In this study...

Migration of glioblastoma cells into surrounding tissue is one of the main features that makes this tumor incurable. We evaluated whole-genome miRNA expression profiling associated with different EGFR amplification patterns in 30 cases of primary glioblastoma. From the 64 miRNAs that showed differential expression between tumors with a high level o...

Introduction Precision medicine is already a reality in the field of oncology given that the selection and use of biomarker-driven therapies has clearly improved patient survival. Furthermore, a new, minimally invasive strategy termed ‘liquid biopsy’ (LB) has revolutionized the field by allowing comprehensive cancer genomic profiling through the an...

Several platforms for non‐invasive EGFR testing are currently used in the clinical setting with sensitivities ranging from 30% to 100%. Prospective studies evaluating agreement and sources for discordant results remain lacking. Herein, 7 methodologies including two next‐generation sequencing (NGS)‐based methods, three high‐sensitivity PCR‐based pla...

Objectives: The main objectives of the study were (1) to set-up a droplet digital PCR (ddPCR) assay for the non-invasive detection of G719S EGFR mutation in NSCLC patients; (2) to determine the limits of detection of the ddPCR assay for G719S mutation and (3) to compare COBAS® and ddPCR System for G719S quantification in plasma. Materials and Metho...

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small non-coding RNAs that negatively regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level, and they have been described as being associated with tumor prognosis. Here, miRNA profiling was planned to explore new molecular prognostic biomarkers in localized intestinal high-risk GIST. Paraffin tumor blocks of 14 and 86 pa...

Background: Despite impressive and durable responses, patients treated with ALK inhibitors (ALK-Is) ultimately progress. We investigated potential resistance mechanisms in a series of ALK-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients progressing on different types of ALK-Is. Methods: 26 plasma and 2 cerebrospinal fluid samples collected upon...

Tumors are complex tissues in which cancer cells are interwoven with fibroblasts, endothelial cells, pericytes, and inflammatory cells; these cells and the extracellular matrix constitute the tumor microenvironment (TME). The TME can modulate the behavior of tumor cells in terms of capacity to invade neighboring or distant tissues and drug resistan...

Background: The study of immune surveillance in the tumour microenvironment is leading to the development of new biomarkers and therapies. The present research focuses on the expression of CD5 and CD6-two lymphocyte surface markers involved in the fine tuning of TCR signaling-as potential prognostic biomarkers in resectable stages of non-small cel...

e21518 Background: Several platforms for non-invasive EGFR testing are currently used in the clinical setting, with sensitivities ranging from 30 to 100%. Comparison studies in prospective cohorts remain limited and reports evaluating mutant allelic fractions (MAFs) are particularly scarce. The RING observational trial (ClinicalTrials.gov identifie...

MET alterations may provide a potential biomarker to evaluate patients who will benefit from treatment with MET inhibitors. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the utility of a liquid biopsy-based strategy to assess MET alterations in cancer patients. We analyzed MET amplification in circulating free DNA (cfDNA) from 174 p...

Introduction/Background Lymphocytic infiltration areas (immunoreactive), frequently found in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC), are associated with a better prognosis and increased survival. The cross-talk between tumour cells and lymphocytes conditions the capacity of the immune system (IS) to cope with the tumour in the so-called immune-ch...

Background Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is the first cause of death cancer-related worldwide mainly due to high therapeutic resistance. This resistance is related to cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), for which the identification of targets and markers is still ongoing. Methods Primary cultures from 8 NSCLC patients were established as tumorsphe...

Background Cancer stem cells (CSCs) are targets poorly recognized by the immune surveillance system given that they induce an immunosuppressive microenvironment. The aim of this work is to study the interactions between CSCs and the immune microenvironment in NSCLC. Methods Tumor cells from 8 resected NSCLC patients and 12 cell lines were establis...

Background Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide. At diagnosis, 70% of patients present advanced disease being chemotherapy the standard of care. Although, specific tumour biomarkers that allow a better treatment selection and monitoring is absent at the moment. Enumeration and characterization of circulating tumor...

Background Exosomes are small membranous vesicles (around 40-130 nm), that have been detected in different biological samples, that play a key role in NSCLC and being relevant in stem cell differentiation as well. The main objective of this study was to analyze the exosomes cargo from NSCLC cell cultures growth in monolayer (2D) and suspension cond...

The high resistance against current therapies found in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has been associated to cancer stem-like cells (CSCs), a population for which the identification of targets and biomarkers is still under development. In this study, primary cultures from early-stage NSCLC patients were established, using sphere-forming assays...

e20685 Background: Immunotherapy with anti-PD1/PDL1 monoclonal antibodies has become the second line standard treatment for most patients diagnosed of advanced Non-Small-Cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The aim of this study is to assess the utility of circulating biomarkers such as sPDL1, sPDL2, sCD137, sIDO, sTIM3, sCD28, sCD27, sCTLA4, sHVEM, sLAG3, sC...

Purpose: Nilotinib plus doxorubicin showed to be synergistic regarding apoptosis in several sarcoma cell lines. A phase I/II trial was thus designed to explore the feasibility of nilotinib as co-adjuvant of doxorubicin by inhibiting MRP-1/ P-gp efflux activity. The phase I part of the study is presented here. Experimental design: Nilotinib 400 m...

Background: Treatment resistance is related to cancer stem cells (CSCs), a highly tumorigenic subpopulation of cells capable of growing and forming tumor spheres under non-adherent conditions. This study aimed to isolate and characterise CSCs from resected non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients' tumor-tissue and cell lines like tumor spheres a...

Objective The aim of the study was to investigate the relationship between germline variations as a prognosis biomarker in patients with advanced Non-Small-Cell-Lung-Cancer (NSCLC) subjected to first-line platinum-based treatment. Materials And Methods We carried out a two-stage genome-wide-association study in non-small-cell lung cancer patients...

EpCAM, known as an epithelial cell adhesion molecule, plays an essential role in cell adhesion, migration, metastasis and cell signalling. Rather than acting as an apoptosis antagonist, it induces cellular proliferation that impacts the cell cycle, and as a signalling transducer it uses and enhances the Wnt pathway, which is significantly relevant...

Background: In a significant percentage of advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients, tumor tissue is unavailable or insufficient for genetic analyses at time to progression. We prospectively analyzed the appearance of genetic alterations associated with resistance in liquid biopsies of advanced NSCLC patients progressing to targeted th...

Lung cancer is the second most frequent tumor and the leading cause of death by cancer in both men and women. Increasing knowledge about the cancer genome and tumor environment has led to a new setting in which morphological and molecular characterization is needed to treat patients in the most personalized way in order to achieve better outcomes....

Background: Lung cancer features like treatment resistance or tumor relapse have been linked to cancer stem cells (CSCs), a population of cells with self-renewal properties, and the ability to grow forming tumorspheres in non-adherent conditions. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize tumorspheres from lung cancer cell lines and tumo...

Background: Lung cancer stem cells (CSCs) are a small population of stem-like cells that remains largely unknown. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) regulation of CSCs gene expression has been reported, constituting a promising therapeutic target. The aim of this study was to isolate and analyze differential expression of a set of miRNAs in tumorspheres from lung...

Background: The average five-year survival index for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients is approximately 15%. Emerging evidence indicates that microRNAs constitute a new class of gene regulators in humans that may play an important role in tumorigenesis. Hence, there is growing interest in studying their role as possible new biomarkers wh...

Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) are malignant tumours of mesenchymal origin and represent around 1% of adult cancers, being a very heterogeneous group of tumours with more than 50 different subtypes. The Wnt signalling pathway is involved in the development and in the regulation, self-renewal and differentiation of mesenchymal stem cells and plays a rol...

Introduction: The discovery of driver mutations in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) has led to the development of genome-based personalized medicine. Fifteen to 20% of adenocarcinomas harbor an epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) activating mutation associated with responses to EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Individual laboratories’...

Tumors develop mechanisms to recruit tolerogenic immune cells and to induce the expression of molecules that act as immune checkpoints. This regulation of the immune microenvironment favors immune tolerance to the neoplastic cells. In this study we have investigated the prognostic role of immune-checkpoint expression markers in a cohort of resectab...

Liquid biopsies appear to be a reliable alternative to conventional biopsies that can provide both precise molecular data useful for improving the clinical management of lung cancer patients as well as a less invasive way of monitoring tumor behavior. These advances are supported by important biotechnological developments in the fields of circulati...

The prognosis of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) remains poor and heterogeneous and new biomarkers are needed. As the immune system plays a pivotal role in cancer, the study of immune-related markers may provide valuable prognostic information of NSCLC. In 122 formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tumor tissue samples from early-stage NSCLC, tumor a...

Chemoresistance, progression and metastasis have made of lung cancer the first cause of cancer mortality. These features were linked to a subpopulation of cells, named cancer stem cells (CSCs), which remain largely unknown. The aim of this study was to isolate and characterize CSCs from lung cancer cell-lines and tumor-tissue from resectable non-sm...

Background: Most GISTs have mutations in KIT or PDGFRA. Patients with advanced GIST with KIT exon 9, PDGFRA mutation or WT for KIT and PDGFRA have a worse progression-free survival (PFS) compared to patients with KIT exon 11 mutated tumors. We evaluated the immunohistochemical (IHC) expression of p-IGF1R (Y1316) and MMP3 as predictors of PFS or ov...

Lung cancer (LC) is responsible for most cancer deaths. One of the main factors contributing to the lethality of this disease is the fact that a large proportion of patients are diagnosed at advanced stages when a clinical intervention is unlikely to succeed. In this study, we evaluated the potential of metabolomics by ¹H-NMR to facilitate the iden...

Facilitated anion transport potentially represents a powerful tool to modulate various cellular functions. However, research into the biological effects of small molecule anionophores are still at an early stage. Here we have used two potent anionophore molecules inspired in the structure of marine metabolites tambjamines to gain insight into the e...