Development of a Biomarker to Predict the Efficacy of Anti-angiogenic Therapy in Ovarian Cancer

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is a highly angiogenic tumor and drug targeting of angiogenesis is effective in some selected groups of EOC patients. However, no biomarkers are available to predict the effectiveness of this expensive therapy.Investigators believe that Multimerin-2, an extracellular matrix molecule, could serve as a biomarker that can address this clinical need. Multimerin-2 is deposited throughout the vasculature and its expression in EOC-associated vessels is frequently lost, in part due to increased degradation. Multimerin-2 sequesters VEGFA and other angiogenic factors and their release upon degradation of Multimerin-2 could underlie resistance to anti-angiogenic therapy. Indeed, fragments of degradation of Multimerin-2 are found in high concentrations in sera of EOC patients. Furthermore, the loss of Multimerin-2 impairs the function of the vessels, and this could negatively affect the delivery of the drug and the efficacy of the treatment.

With the aim of predicting the efficiency of anti-angiogenic therapy, researchers will evaluate the angiogenic properties and expression of Multimerin-2 in EOC tumors, and develop a new Multimerin-2-based biomarker detectable by liquid biopsy, in order to manage EOC patients in a targeted manner based on the biological characteristics of their tumor.