Our research / Hynninen group

Background
Ovarian cancer kills more than 40 000 women in Europe each year. High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSC) is the most common and most difficult to treat subtype of the disease. The HGSC tumours consist of several heterogeneous cell populations with a large number of mutations. This genetic variability of the tumours makes it difficult to find drugs that would be able to kill all the cancer cells and to which some of the cells would not become resistant towards during treatment. Therefore, though most of the patients respond well to surgery and chemotherapy initially, more than half experience relapse.

Turku HGSC Study cohort
Our prospective trial consists of HGSC patients who undergo surgery in Turku University Central Hospital (TYKS) and who give their informed consent (ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT04846933). We have currently recruited >350 patients.

Sample collection
We collect fresh tumour samples from surgeries (primary tumours, metastases) and plasma samples during chemotherapy and in disease relapse. For patients experiencing fluid accumulation in pleural or abdominal cavity, we collect ascites and pleural fluid samples.

Sample processing
The collected fresh samples undergo meticulous processing at University of Turku, where the researchers have optimised the methods to ensure the highest possible quality samples for further experiments and analysis. Fresh samples are sent to whole genome sequencing (WGS) and RNA sequencing. Cell-free tumour DNA (ctDNA) derived from plasma samples in analysed first with shallow sequencing and further with larger gene panels and exome sequencing. The critical bioinformatics work is conducted at HautaniemiLab, University of Helsinki (Finland). Processed tumours are sent further to our collaborators to organoid culturing. Digital H&E slides are made for prognostic modelling and tumour heterogeneity assessment.

Our research database merges clinical, genomic, and histopathologic data and helps to personalize treatments, predict outcomes, and find new markers.

Hynninen group (TYKS) is a partner in DECIDER PROJECT deciderproject.eu/.  Our primary objective is to bridge the gap between research findings and clinical care with a particular focus on improving treatment options for patients facing relapsed disease when conventional therapies are no longer effective. Personalised treatment solutions are searched by exploiting druggable targets in patient´s genome and by conducting drug screening using patient derived organoids.

Our ongoing projects include clinical applications of serial ctDNA measurement and WGS-based signature 3 as prognostic marker in HGSC. In our novel project on radiomics in HGCS, we are working to extract meaningful data from medical images, offering a more comprehensive understanding of tumour genomics and heterogeneity.