Maurizio D’Incalci

His studies have been essential to guide the preclinical and clinical investigation of the marine natural product trabectedin, a drug currently used worldwide for the therapy of soft tissue sarcomas and some other solid malignancies. Recently he has identified novel mechanistically-driven combinations of trabectedin with other drugs. These combinations have been successfully tested in preclinical models of liposarcomas and are currently under investigation in the clinic.

Over the years he has elucidated the mode of action and the pharmacological properties of several novel compounds, some of which have been developed in the clinic as anticancer agents.

His team has developed methods to determine drugs in tumors by applying a variety of methods including Imaging Mass Spectrometry demonstrating that resistance against treatment is not only related to molecular changes of drug targets, but also to low and heterogeneous tumor penetration of anticancer agents.

His recent preclinical and translational research has been mainly focused on soft tissue sarcomas, mesotheliomas and ovarian cancer. As far as ovarian cancer his team has recently identified molecular biomarkers that can be used to optimize and monitor the therapy and are potentially exploitable for an early diagnosis of this disease.

1. Paracchini L., Beltrame L., Grassi T., Inglesi A., Fruscio R., Landoni F., Ippolito D., Delle Marchette M., Paderno M.C., Adorni M., Jaconi M., Romualdi C., D’Incalci M., Siravegna G., Marchini S. Genome-wide copy number alterations in circulating tumor DNA as a novel biomarker in high grade serous ovarian cancer patients. Clin. Cancer Res., 27(9): 2549-2559 (2021)
2. Frapolli R., Bello E., Ponzo M., Craparotta I., Mannarino L., Ballabio S., Marchini S., Carrassa L., Ubezio P., Porcu L., Brich S., Sanfilippo R., Casali P.G., Gronchi A., Pilotti S., D’Incalci M. Combination of PPARg agonist pioglitazone and trabectedin induce adipocyte differentiation to overcome trabectedin resistance in myxoid liposarcomas. Clin. Cancer Res., 25: 7565-7575 (2019).
3. Garattini S., Fuso Nerini I., D’Incalci M. Not only tumor but also therapy heterogeneity. Oncol., 29: 13-19 (2018).
4. Di Giandomenico S., Frapolli R., Bello E., Uboldi S., Licandro S.A., Brich S., Mauro V., Tamborini E., Pilotti S., Casali P., Grosso F., Sanfilippo R., Gronchi A., Mantovani R., Galmarini C., Fernandez Sousa-Faro J.M., D’Incalci M. Mode of action of trabectedin in myxoid liposarcomas. Oncogene, 33(44): 5201-5210 (2014).
5. Germano G., Frapolli R., Belgiovine C., Anselmo A., Pesce S., Liguori M., Erba E., Uboldi S., Zucchetti M., Pasqualini F., Nebuloni M., Van Rooijen N., Mortarini R., Beltrame L., Marchini S., Fuso Nerini I., Sanfilippo R., Casali P.G., Pilotti S., Anichini A., Mantovani A., D’Incalci M., Allavena P. Role of Macrophage targeting in the anti-tumor activity of Trabectedin. Cancer Cell, 23(2): 249-262 (2013).