Sophie Sneddon

Michael Smith Genome Sciences Centre | BCGSC

Objectives Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an asbestos related tumour affecting cells of serosal cavities. More than 70% of MM patients develop pleural effusions which contain tumour cells, representing a readily accessible source of malignant cells for genetic analysis. Although common somatic mutations and losses have been identified in solid MM t...

Background: Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is an aggressive cancer of the pleural and peritoneal cavities caused by exposure to asbestos. Asbestos-induced mesotheliomas in wild-type mice have been used extensively as a preclinical model because they are phenotypically identical to their human counterpart. However, it is not known if the genetic lesio...

A key to improving cancer immunotherapy will be the identification of tumor-specific ‘neo-antigens’ that arise from mutations and augmenting the resultant host immune response. In this study we identified single nucleotide variants (SNV) from RNA sequencing of asbestos induced murine mesothelioma cell lines, AB1 and AB1-HA. Using the NetMHCpan 2.8...

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a uniformly fatal tumour caused predominantly by exposure to asbestos. It is not known why some exposed individuals get mesothelioma and other do not. There is some epidemiological evidence of host susceptibility. BAP1 gene somatic mutations and allelic loss are common in mesothelioma and recently a BAP1 cancer syndro...

Malignant mesothelioma (MM) is a fatal cancer of the pleural and peritoneal cavities caused predominantly by exposure to asbestos. Cohort studies suggest a genetic component to MM susceptibility. BAP1 is a tumour suppressor gene located at 3p21 and is one of the most commonly somatically lost or mutated genes in MM, occurring in approximately 40–60...

Neoantigens present unique and specific targets for personalized cancer immunotherapy strategies. Given the low mutational burden yet immunotherapy responsiveness of malignant mesothelioma (MM) when compared to other carcinogen-induced malignancies, identifying candidate neoantigens and T cells that recognize them has been a challenge. We used pleu...

Background Soft tissue and bone sarcoma represent a broad spectrum of different pathology and genetic variance. Current chemotherapy regimens are derived from randomised trials and represent empirical treatment. Chemosensitivity testing and whole exome sequencing (WES) may offer personalized chemotherapy treatment based on genetic mutations. Metho...

Introduction/Aim: High-throughput sequencing of malignant mesothelioma (MM) tumours allows for the identification of genetic variation and transcriptome dynamics and furthers our understanding of MM tumour biology. Expression of immune-related genes in tumour infiltrate has been shown to correlate with survival in other cancers. Pleural effusion of...

The MSLN gene products, soluble mesothelin and megakaryocyte potentiating factor (MPF), are being investigated as biomarkers for the asbestos-related cancer malignant mesothelioma (MM). Pleural fluid biomarkers of MM can be elevated when serum levels remain normal. The aim of this study was to determine if this was true for MPF and to compare level...