Abstract A57: Drug sensitivity and resistance testing (DSRT) of clinically important compounds on primary ovarian cancer cell lines
Authors: Roering Pia , Mikkonen Piia , Potdar Swapnil , Wennerberg Krister , Hynninen Johanna , Grénman Seija , Auranen Annika , Carpén Olli , Kaipio Katja 
Published: August 2018

The heterogeneity of chemoresponses in high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGS-OvCa) presents a major clinical challenge. The inherited or acquired nonresponsiveness to current therapies is likely to be one reason for relapse and treatment failure. Better models for predicting effective treatment options and drug combinations are needed. Although most tumors initially respond to standard platinum-taxane combination therapy, treatment resistance eventually evolves in 80-90% of the patients.

Drug sensitivity and resistance testing (DSRT) was performed by using high-throughput screening (HTS) of 306 small-drug molecules on six primary cell lines from patients with disseminated HGS-OvCa. Commonly available ovarian cancer cell line OVCAR8 was used as a control. The drug effect was investigated with help of a quantitative scoring approach, drug sensitivity score (DSS). Sixteen drugs of clinical interest were investigated in more detail.

Drug sensitivity varied greatly within primary cell lines. Out of 306 compounds, 29 were effective on the most resistant cell line, whereas 102 compounds showed effect on the most sensitive line. We found that 9 out of the 16 clinically important compounds gave no response on the tested cell lines. Seven compounds provided response on the screened cell lines: four HSP90 inhibitors, an HSP70 inhibitor, a Wee1 inhibitor, and a proteasome inhibitor. Of these seven compounds, the most effective drug compounds (the Wee1 inhibitor and two HSP90 inhibitors) were chosen for validation on primary HGS-OvCa cell lines to verify the HTS result. The effectiveness of currently used clinical treatment-line drugs, cisplatin and paclitaxel, was compared to the putative novel drug compounds on the primary cell lines and the control cell line.

One primary cell line was completely resistant to the validated drug compounds as well as to cisplatin and paclitaxel combination treatment. Five cell lines were sensitive to cisplatin-paclitaxel treatment, but the sensitivity to the three most effective compounds varied greatly. The commonly available cell line OVCAR8 was the most sensitive of all tested cell lines.

In conclusion, we found three potential drug compounds of clinical interest effective for disseminated HGS-OvCa. The analyses demonstrate that patient-derived primary HGS-OvCa cell lines have unique heterogeneous characteristics that are likely to have an effect on the choice of best drug candidates for each individual cell line, and furthermore for each patient. Consequently, more combinatorial drug treatment strategies should be validated to find new specific personalized drug treatment strategies.

Citation Format: Pia Roering, Piia Mikkonen, Swapnil Potdar, Krister Wennerberg, Johanna Hynninen, Seija Grénman, Annika Auranen, Olli Carpén, Katja Kaipio. Drug sensitivity and resistance testing (DSRT) of clinically important compounds on primary ovarian cancer cell lines. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Conference: Addressing Critical Questions in Ovarian Cancer Research and Treatment; Oct 1-4, 2017; Pittsburgh, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2018;24(15_Suppl):Abstract nr A57.