The identification of genetic vulnerabilities in head and neck cancers for the development of novel therapies.

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Every year ~370,000 of the world population will die of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC), and of these more than 80% will be from the Asian sub-continent. In Malaysia, HNSCC is the second commonest form of cancer. Less than 50% of HNSCC patients will survive beyond 5 years after diagnosis, largely due to a lack of effective therapies for this cancer. There is compelling evidence that identifying the genes that are responsible for the survival and growth of cancer cells can help us develop new drugs, and more importantly determine which existing drugs are most effective for specific patients. Here, using cancer cells that were derived from Asian HNSCC patients, we will use newly developed powerful gene editing techniques to identify critical genes that are responsible for cancer survival, and where inhibiting these would result in cancer cell death or growth arrest. The identification of genes that are essential for cancer cell survival will result in identification of relevant existing drugs that could be re-purposed for the treatment of HNSCC. This approach would shorten the drug development markedly as the safety and efficacy profiles of these would already be well-documented. In addition, the knowledge of the genes that drive HNSCC would afford an opportunity to develop novel drugs that could be effective in the treatment of HNSCC.