Joan M. Romero
A5005359066- Cancer Immunotherapy and Biomarkers
- Pancreatic and Hepatic Oncology Research
- CAR-T cell therapy research
- Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics
- Phagocytosis and Immune Regulation
- Cancer Cells and Metastasis
- Chemokine receptors and signaling
- Immune Cell Function and Interaction
- Viral-associated cancers and disorders
- Epigenetics and DNA Methylation
- Lymphoma Diagnosis and Treatment
- Immunotherapy and Immune Responses
- Neuroendocrine Tumor Research Advances
- Nanoplatforms for cancer theranostics
- Cancer, Hypoxia, and Metabolism
- Diversity and Career in Medicine
- T-cell and Retrovirus Studies
- Lung Cancer Research Studies
- Multiple and Secondary Primary Cancers
- Circular RNAs in diseases
- Liver Disease and Transplantation
- Organ Transplantation Techniques and Outcomes
- Immune cells in cancer
- MicroRNA in disease regulation
- Neuroblastoma Research and Treatments
McGill University Health Centre
2021-2024
McGill University
2020-2023
Ontario Institute for Cancer Research
2018-2021
Occupational Cancer Research Centre
2021
University of Toronto
2019-2020
Sunnybrook Research Institute
2018
Sunnybrook Health Science Centre
2018
Intratumoral heterogeneity is a critical frontier in understanding how the tumor microenvironment (TME) propels malignant progression. Here, we deconvolute human pancreatic TME through large-scale integration of histology-guided regional multiOMICs with clinical data and patient-derived preclinical models. We discover "subTMEs," histologically definable tissue states anchored fibroblast plasticity, relationships to immunity, subtypes, differentiation, treatment response. "Reactive" subTMEs...
The molecular drivers of antitumor immunity in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) are poorly understood, posing a major obstacle for the identification patients potentially amenable immune-checkpoint blockade or other novel strategies. Here, we explore association chemokine expression with effector T-cell infiltration PDAC.Discovery cohorts comprised 113 primary resected PDAC and 107 liver metastases. Validation 182 from Cancer Genome Atlas 92 PDACs Australian International Consortium....
// Robert K. Nam 1, * , Tania Benatar 2, Yutaka Amemiya 3 Christopher J.D. Wallis 1 Joan Miguel Romero 2 Melina Tsagaris Sherman 4, 5 Linda Sugar and Arun Seth 3, Division of Urology, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Research Institute, University Toronto, ON, Canada Platform Biological Sciences, Genomics Facility, 4 Department Anatomic Pathology, Laboratory Medicine Pathobiology, These authors contributed equally to the work Correspondence to: Benatar, email: tbenatar@rogers.com Seth,...
Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are highly effective in specific cancers where canonical markers of antitumor immunity used for patient selection. Improved predictors T cell-inflammation needed to identify ICI-responsive tumor subsets additional cancer types. We investigated associations a 4-chemokine expression signature (c-Score: CCL4, CCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10) with metrics across Across entities from The Cancer Genome Atlas, subgroups tumors displayed high the c-Score (c-Scorehi) increased...
The immune contexture of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is generally immunosuppressive. A role for checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) in PDAC has only been demonstrated the rare and hypermutated mismatch repair (MMR) deficient (MMR-d) subtype. Homologous recombination (HR) (HR-d) more prevalent may encompass up to 20% PDAC. Its genomic instability promote a T-cell mediated anti-tumor response with therapeutic sensitivity ICIs. To investigate immunogenicity HR-d PDAC, we used multiplex...
Purpose: Women have traditionally been underrepresented in MD and MD-PhD training programs. Here, we describe the changing demographics of an Program over three distinct time intervals. Methods: We designed a 64-question survey sent it to 47 graduates McGill University program Montréal, Québec, Canada, since its inception 1985. also 23-question 24 students 2021. The surveys included questions related demographics, physician-scientist training, research metrics, as well academic personal...
Abstract Background: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) are rare arising from cells in the pancreas. Their clinical behaviour and prognosis variable durable responses often difficult to achieve with conventional therapies. Immunotherapy approaches may be efficacious a subgroup of pNETs. In recent study that did not include pNETs, we showed four-chemokine signature (c-Score: CCL4, CCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10) predicts T cell-inflammation response immune checkpoint inhibitors across cancers. We...
Summary Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains resistant to most treatments and demonstrates a complex pathobiology. Here, we deconvolute regional heterogeneity in the human PDAC tumor microenvironment (TME), long-standing obstacle, define precise stromal contributions progression. Large scale integration of histology-guided multiOMICs with clinical data sets functional vitro models uncovers two microenvironmental programs that were anchored fibroblast differentiation states. These...
2558 Background: Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are highly effective in select cancers. Novel predictors of T cell-inflammation may identify a broader subset tumors with ICI responsiveness. Our group has identified four chemokines (CCL4, CCL5, CXCL9, CXLC10) able to predict cell-inflamed phenotype primary and metastatic pancreatic tumors. Here, we test whether this 4-chemokine signature can across additional tumor types response ICI. Methods: Using matched genomic transcriptomic data...
Abstract Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICI) are highly effective in specific cancers where canonical markers of antitumor immunity used for patient selection. Novel predictors T cell-inflammation needed to identify ICI-responsive tumor subsets additional cancer types. We investigated associations a 4-chemokine expression signature (c-Score: CCL4, CCL5, CXCL9, CXCL10) with metrics across Across entities from The Cancer Genome Atlas, subgroups tumors displayed high the c-Score (c-Score hi )...
<p>Supplementary Figure 4: Immune phenotypes were not impacted by cellularity in primary tumors</p>
<p>Supplementary Table 2: Top 100 upregulated genes in 4-chemokinehi and 4-chemokinelo patients</p>
<p>Supplementary Table 4: Summary statistics for cellularity between 4-chemokinehi and 4-chemokinelo groups in liver metastases</p>
<p>Supplementary Figure 2: Transcriptomic subtypes versus 4-chemokinehi and 4-chemokinelo in both primary metastatic tumours</p>
<p>Supplementary Table 3: Summary statistics for cellularity in 4-chemokinehi and 4-chemokinelo groups primary resections</p>
<p>Supplementary Figure 6: Immune phenotypes were not impacted by cellularity in metastases</p>
<p>Supplementary Table 1: Top 99 genes associating with CD8+ TIL counts in primary resected cases</p>
<p>Supplementary Figure 3: Association of chemokine expression with a T cell-inflamed phenotype was validated in second independent PDAC patient cohort</p>
<p>Supplementary Figure 5: The 4-chemokine signature identified an antitumor phenotype in liver metastases, independent of mutational burden</p>
<p>Supplementary Figure 1: Overview of methodology and cohorts</p>