Brian Mooney

Current treatment regimens for Osteosarcoma (OS), which include surgery and cytotoxic chemotherapy have resulted in a 5-year survival rate of roughly 75%. However, patients presenting with metastatic disease are faced with an abysmal 5-year survival rate of just 20%, with refractory disease remaining largely incurable, and these statistics have not improved for decades. There is a clear unmet clinical need to identify novel therapeutic opportunities for these patients. Immunotherapy continues to revolutionize cancer treatment in adult cancers, but progress is yet to be reported for solid childhood cancers such as OS. Building on from our previous research, we are now in possession of a comprehensive roadmap of the surface proteins expressed in OS, which is vital to the design of effective immunotherapies. With this proposal, we first aim to characterize which surface proteins are critical for allowing OS cells to metastasize. Once we have zoned in on these targets, we will develop preclinical immunotherapy agents and begin testing their effectiveness using lab-models of disease. With this proposal, we hope to take one step closer to bringing immunotherapy to OS patients.