The Sikic Laboratory

A legacy of researching and developing cancer treatment strategies at Stanford University School of Medicine.

Clinical interests: general oncology, cancer pharmacology, clinical trials of modulation of drug resistance, and integration of novel targeted drugs into cancer therapies.

Research interests: mechanisms of resistance to anticancer drugs, particularly multidrug resistance (ABCB1/P-glycoprotein), resistance to taxanes, and pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics.

Our goals were to understand mechanisms of drug resistance in cancer cells and to develop more effective therapies. Research ranged from biochemical and molecular studies in cellular models to Phase I, II and III clinical trials, and translational studies of molecular determinants of therapeutic response and toxicity.

Laboratory projects included studies of the multidrug transporter, P-glycoprotein, regulation of the ABCB1 gene, taxane resistance mechanisms including tubulin gene expression, and pharmacogenetic and genomic studies related to clinical trials in colorectal cancers, pediatric leukemias, and brain tumors.

Clinical investigations included the prognostic significance of resistance gene expression in cancers, pharmacokinetic consequences of MDR modulation, Phase I and II trials of new tyrosine kinase inhibitors both as single agents and integrated with standard chemotherapies, a Phase I trial of an agonistic human monoclonal antibody against TRAIL-R2, and the first-in-human, first-in-class clinical trial of the anti-CD47 antibody, Hu5F9-G4.

The laboratory closed on July 31, 2018.