Abstract A007: Assessment of metabolic vulnerabilities of breast cancer brain metastasis

Abstract The metastasis of cancer to the brain is a major contributor to patient morbidity and mortality. Prior work suggests that there is therapeutic potential in targeting metabolic processes within brain metastatic cancer, however how best to identify novel targets and select patient populations remains unclear. In this study, we determine what nutrients are available to breast cancer cells in the brain and how those nutrients are used. We also engineer breast cancer cells that are auxotrophic for specific nutrients and assess how this impacts tumor growth in the brain using various approaches. These methodologies include direct implantation into the brain and introduction into the circulation to evaluate tumor formation as brain metastases. Unexpectedly, we find that no single approach, including assessment of brain nutrient availability, tumor biosynthetic activity, and evaluation of genetic dependencies using in vivo CRISPR screens reliably predicts metabolic dependencies that broadly extend across models of breast cancer brain metastasis. Our findings underscore the necessity of a holistic approach in considering how best to identify and prioritize new targets for treating metastatic cancer. Citation Format: Keene L. Abbott, Sonu Subudhi, Raphael Ferreira, Yetiş Gültekin, Sophie C. Steinbuch, Sophie E. Honeder, Ashwin S Kumar, Michelle Wu, Diya Ramesh, Jacob Hansen, Lisa M. Riedmayr, Mark Duquette, Ahmed Ali, Nicole Henning, Sharanya Sivanand, Tenzin Kunchok, Millenia Waite, Brian T. Do, Virginia Spanoudaki, Francisco J. Sánchez-Rivera, George M. Church, Rakesh K Jain, Matthew G. Vander Heiden. Assessment of metabolic vulnerabilities of breast cancer brain metastasis abstract. In: Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference in Cancer Research: Expanding and Translating Cancer Synthetic Vulnerabilities; 2024 Jun 10-13; Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2024;23(6 Suppl):Abstract nr A007.