Abstract 4072: FGFR inhibitors enhance gemcitabine sensitivity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma
Authors: Lin Qingxiang , Chaudhuri Tista Roy , Straubinger Ninfa L. , Ma Wen Wee , Straubinger Robert M. 
Published: July 2017

Pancreatic cancer (PaCA) is highly refractory to treatment, with a median survival of 6 months. Currently, gemcitabine (Gem), a difluoro analog of deoxycytidine, is the standard care for PaCA, but it renders only a modest survival benefit. Combination therapy, integrating novel agents into standard-of-care regimens, may maximize efficacy of Gem-based therapy. Fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) function is aberrant in pancreatic cancer, and suppression of FGFRs inhibits pancreatic cancer growth and invasion. However, the mechanisms of FGFR action and their therapeutic utility in pancreatic cancer remain to be elucidated. Here we tested the hypothesis that FGFRs can impact Gem sensitivity of PaCA cells by employing pan-FGFR inhibitors and shRNAs against FGFRs. NVP-BGJ398 and AZD4547 are novel FGFR inhibitors (FGFRIs) specific to FGFR1, FGFR2 and FGFR3, and are in various stages of clinical trial. The FGFRIs modestly but significantly inhibited proliferation, migration, and invasion of PANC-1, MIAPaCa-2 cells in wound-healing and trans-well assays. Treatment with low-concentration Gem (7.5nM) enhanced MIAPaCa-2 cell migration at 24hrs, but migration was reduced subsequently, suggesting a sequence of delayed effects of Gem upon cell migration. After 72hrs of exposure, Gem combined with FGFRIs reduced MIAPaCa-2 cell proliferation significantly compared to controls or Gem- and FGFRI alone. Pharmacodynamic modeling was employed to evaluate drug interaction, and the interaction coefficient Psi was estimated by simultaneous modeling of 16 different drug combinations over a period of 0-96 hrs. The analysis estimated Psi=0.78, which indicates synergism. Compared to BGJ398 or Gem alone, the combination also increased the percentage of cells arrested at S phase for a longer period of time. Western blots revealed significant downregulation of ribonucleoside-diphosphate reductase large subunit (RRM1), DNA excision repair protein (ERCC1), and Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal transition biomarkers (vimentin and snail) with FGFRI/Gem treatment compared to Gem-treated cells, indicating that FGFRIs inhibit numerous factors that may contribute to Gem resistance. Loss-of-function by shRNA-mediated knockdown of FGFR1 in MIAPaCa-2 cells showed decreased expression of RRM1, whereas knockdown of FGFR2 and FGFR3 mediated an increase in RRM1 expression, implicating FGFR1 suppression in improving Gem-sensitivity. These results suggest that inhibition of FGFR1 could potentially enhance sensitivity of PaCA to Gem therapy, and that combining FGFRs with gemcitabine is a promising treatment strategy in pancreatic cancer.

Citation Format: Qingxiang Lin, Tista Roy Chaudhuri, Ninfa L. Straubinger, Wen Wee Ma, Robert M. Straubinger. FGFR inhibitors enhance gemcitabine sensitivity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 4072. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-4072