Description

Kim will use a pancreatic NET mouse model to determine the significance of Angiopoietin-2(Ang2)/Tie2 signaling on liver metastasis and anti-VEGF drug efficacy.

What question will the researchers try to answer?

What is the contribution of the Ang2/Tie2 pathway to liver metastasis and anti-VEGF therapy resistance in pancreatic NET?

Why is this important?

The project will unravel potential mechanistic pathways for effectively promoting tumor vascular normalization, which will increase drug delivery and suppress tumor metastasis in patients with pancreatic NETs.

What will researchers do?

Researchers will identify the mechanism by which Ang2/Tie2 signaling promotes tumor cell metastasis to the liver in pancreatic NETs. In laboratory experiments, researchers will determine whether targeting Ang2 will reduce liver metastasis and increase anti-VEGF drug efficacy in a spontaneous pancreatic NET mouse model.

How might this improve the treatment of NETs?

Ang2 is expected to promote vessel destabilization in the liver, which can facilitate tumor cell metastasis. By targeting the Ang2/Tie2 pathway, Kim hopes to extend and improve current anti-VEGF drug treatment response for pancreatic NET patients.

What is the next step?

Kim’s experiments may develop data to support further preclinical research of the complementary therapeutic combination targeting the Ang2 and VEGF pathway.