General Information
KFO210 ran out in 2015. This homepage will therefore not further be updated.
The starting point of the KFO210 initiative "Genetics of drug resistance in cancer" was the idea to
undertake a concerted effort by molecular biologists together with clinically active physicians
in order to competitively address on a basic science and translational level the most significant
problem in clinical oncology – drug resistance.
The goal of this KFO will be to better understand certain aspects of resistance in order to be able to develop
ideas for new treatment strategies, which should ultimately also lead to improved the clinical outcome of drug
resistant patients. As one examplary result toward this key purpose, a clinical phase II trial could be initiated
in Marburg based on a cooperative finding by four KFO210 partners. They described that sorafenib, a kinase inhibitor
that is normally approved for the treatment of some solid cancers, has exceptional clinical activity in multi-drug
resistant, Flt3-ITD positive acute leukemia.
All projects have made significant progress as will be elaborated in more detail below. For example, projects one
to four performed in cooperation with the Z-project unbiased functional RNA interference and shRNA library screens
and have identified interesting candidates. Projects four to six, and project one, investigated known genes such as
Ras, p73, WNT4A, BCR-ABL, and NFAT for their role in tumorigenesis and drug resistance in leukemia, lung and pancreatic
cancer. From the structural point of view the KFO210 initiative clearly strengthened the network of clinical and basic
scientists working on drug resistance, and it indeed established this topic as a major focus of tumor research at the
Universities of Marburg and also Gießen
In the new funding period three new members shall be integrated into the KFO210. All three projects will significantly
strengthen the KFO210 thematically and methodologically with their highly innovative projects.