Detail

Keywords

Adaptive Immunity; Cachexia; Colorectal Neoplasms; Gastrointestinal Neoplasms; Inflammation; Mental Health; Metabolism; Molecular Targeted Therapy; Oncogenes; Pancreatic Cancer; Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine; Physical Fitness; Radiation Effects; Sarcopenia; Translational Medical Research; Tumor Markers, Biological

Research group(s)

• Experimental Pathology & Laboratory Animal Pathology
  Head: Lukas Kenner
  Research Area: Pathogenesis of cancer, specifically prostate cancer (PC) and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL).
  Members:
  Elisabeth S. Gruber
• Medical Radiation Research
  Head: Dietmar Georg
  Research Area: The vision of our group is the optimization of the treatment outcome of radiation oncology, alone or in combination with established chemotherapy or novel targeted strategies of drug treatment, with conventional photon or innovative ion-beams.
  Members:
  Nicole Nesvacil
  Andreas Renner
  Gerd Heilemann
  Ingo Gulyas
  Wolfgang Lechner
  Sylvia Gruber
  Monika Clausen
  Stefan Ecker
  Andreas Resch
  Petra Trnkova
  Elisabeth S. Gruber
  Peter Kuess
  Lukas Fetty
  Natalia Kostiukhina
  Dietmar Georg
  Barbara Knäusl
  Hermann Fuchs
• Pancreatic Cancer Unit
  Research Area: Diagnostic and treatment of pancreatic cancer and pancreatitis Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms Prehabilitation program before surgery
  Members:
  Klaus Sahora
  Elisabeth S. Gruber
• Pancreatic surgery
  Head: Martin Schindl
  Research Area: Body composition and inflammation in pancreatic neoplasms.
  Members:
  Gerd Jomrich
  Klaus Sahora
  Elisabeth S. Gruber
  Jakob Mühlbacher

Research interests

My main research interest is translational surgical oncology in gastrointestinal cancer; dedicated studies are conducted with collaborating partners and focus on:

1. the stimulation of adaptive immunity by elaboration of the appopriate radiation dosage to improve tumor immune surveillance

• objective: to explore radiation-induced immunomodulation in (colo)rectal cancer
• aim: the use of radiation-induced immunostimulation and consecutive tumor shrinkage/clearance in (colo)rectal cancer

2. the exploration of predictive biomarkers that implicate novel therpeutic approaches

• project 1
• objective: to understand the impact of the oncogene AF1Q/MLLT11 and its downstream targets in gastrointestinal cancer
• aim: development of novel AF1Q/MLLT11-mediated therapeutic approaches and biomarkers in gastrointestinal cancer
• project 2
• objective: to explore tumor-host interactions by analysation of the patient's inflammation, immune and metabolic profile in pancreatic cancer 
• aim: development of novel therapeutic approaches and biomarkers in pancreatic cancer

3. the exploration of the impact of physical and mental health on the outcome in pancreatic cancer

• objective: to understand the impact of physical exercise as well as dietary and psychological support on pancreatic cancer outcome
• aim: delevopment of a (tailored) prehabilitation concept for pancreatic cancer patients

Techniques, methods & infrastructure

Radiation-induced immunomodulation in (colo)rectal cancer

• models: 3D CRC spheroid cultures, C57BL/6J-ApcMin/J mouse model, human tumor specimen
• methods: (digital multicolour) IHC, Calprotectin ELISA, PBMC co-cultivation invasion/migration assay, tissue immune cell isolation, FACS
• collaborating labs: MUV: Dept. of Experimental and Animal Pathology, Dept. of Radiation Oncology/Physics/Biology, Institute for Cancer Research; Center for Biomarker Research in Medicine (CBMed), Graz.

Oncogene AF1Q/MLLT11 in gastrointestinal cancer

• models: C57BL/6J-ApcMin/J mouse model, human tumor specimen
• methods: (digital multicolour) IHC
• collaborating labs: Dept. of Experimental and Animal Pathology, MUV; James Graham Brown Cancer Center, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, KY, USA.

Tumor-host interactions/inflammation, immune and metabolic profile in pancreatic cancer

• models: human blood/tissue samples (biobank)
• methods: ELISA, PCR, metabolomic profiling, IHC
• collaborating MUV labs: Dept. of Experimental and Animal Pathology; Surgical Research Laboratory.

Physical exercise/dietary/psychological support in pancreatic cancer

• models: human blood/tissue samples (biobank)
• methods: physical exercise, dietary/psychological support, anthropometric measurements, bioimpedance, ELISA, PCR, metabolomic profiling, IHC, psychologic questionnaire
• collaborating MUV labs: Dept. of Physical Medicine, Rehabilitation and Occupational Medicine; Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology; Dept. of Oncology; Dept. of Biomedical Imaging and Image-guided Therapy; Dept. of Experimental and Animal Pathology.

Selected publications

1. Gruber, E.S. et al., 2020. The Determination of Immunomodulation and Its Impact on Survival of Rectal Cancer Patients Depends on the Area Comprising a Tissue Microarray. Cancers, 12(3), p.563. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cancers12030563.
2. Gruber, E.S. et al., 2020. The Prognostic Index Independently Predicts Survival in Patients with Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Undergoing Resection. Annals of Surgical Oncology. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1245/s10434-019-08161-6.
3. Gruber et al., 2019. The Oncogene AF1Q is Associated with WNT and STAT Signaling and Offers a Novel Independent Prognostic Marker in Patients with Resectable Esophageal Cancer. Cells, 8(11), p.1357. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/cells8111357.
4. Gruber, E.S. et al., 2019. Sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity are independent adverse prognostic factors in resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma F. X. Real, ed. PLOS ONE, 14(5), p.e0215915. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0215915.