Nicola Crosetto

Project summary

Advanced characterisation of variation between cells within a tumour

Cancer treatments are increasingly tailored to each patient’s individual cancer, yet many targeted therapies still fail. One likely reason is that cancer constitutes a highly complex ecosystem comprising millions of cells with different characteristics. This variation, known as ‘intratumour heterogeneity’ (ITH), has a major impact on how, and whether, a tumour responds to treatment. Through his research project, Nicola Crosetto aims to develop new, reliable methods for measuring and visualising ITH and translating this information into clinically useful knowledge for treating physicians.

 

Over the past few decades, many leading cancer centres around the world have begun developing treatment programmes based on the concept of personalised cancer medicine. This involves tailoring treatment to the unique characteristics of each patient’s cancer rather than treating all cancers in the same way. Despite major investments in this field, many targeted therapies fail, probably because each individual cancer constitutes its own highly complex ecosystem comprising millions of cells with different characteristics.

 

This variation, known as ‘intratumour heterogeneity’ (ITH), has a major impact on how, and whether, a tumour responds to treatment and whether it will develop life-threatening metastases. It is therefore important to develop new, reliable methods for measuring and visualising ITH and translating this information into clinically useful knowledge for treating physicians.

 

Nicola Crosetto’s research project addresses this challenge by developing advanced technologies and computational algorithms to measure different parameters in cancer samples. These methods are then applied to map ITH in breast cancer patients who have received neoadjuvant chemotherapy before surgery. The project uniquely integrates cutting-edge technology developed at Science for Life Laboratory with clinical expertise at Karolinska University Hospital, helping to position Sweden at the forefront of personalised cancer treatment.