Targeting the Achilles heel of pediatric Hodgkin Lymphoma

Pediatric Hodgkin lymphoma treatment causes significant long-term toxicity in adult survivors. The lack of cell culture systems, modeling the complex interactions of malignant lymphoma cells with the microenvironment that supports their survival, has impeded the development of targeted treatments. In the proposed project we aim to selectively induce malignant Hodgkin lymphoma cell death, without the side-effects of chemo- and radiation therapy. Therefore, the overall aim is to discover novel therapeutic targets for efficient tumor cell killing by disturbing the microenvironment-lymphoma interaction. To this end, we will study the effects of interrupting tumor cells/CD4+ T cell crosstalk in our novel ex vivo 3D Hodgkin lymphoma cell culture model.

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Diana Petcu