# Integrated prediction of tissue of origin in cancers of unknown primary

> **NIH NIH P20** · UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS · 2020 · $291,184

## Abstract

ABSTRACT: RESEARCH PROJECT 1 
Cancers of Unknown Primary (CUPs) are metastasized tumors without an identifiable primary site. They are 
treated with general platinum/taxane based therapy and have poor survival. We propose to identify the primary 
site for CUPs, based on tissue specific methylation profiles. The long-term goal is to use the primary site 
identity as an additional piece of information that will guide therapy. We hypothesize that there are methylation 
markers that are tissue specific and stable across normal and different stages of cancer cells. For Aim 1, we 
use discriminant analysis on methylation data from the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) and others to identify 
the markers that tell us the tissue of origins. Using these markers, for Aim 2, we will develop a bioinformatics 
pipeline that can infer the primary site from the integration of DNA methylation, mRNA and miRNA markers. 
For Aim 3, we will validate our methods using archived samples of CUPs and other metastasized tumors by 
blindly testing the predictions of our algorithm. The approach is innovative, since it will be the first study to 
integrate gene expression and DNA methylation to predict the primary site, while also taking into account the 
heterogeneous cell types in an unpurified sample. The outcomes from this work will be a list of markers that 
are stable for tissue identification across different cancer stages, and an open-source bioinformatics software 
that can be used to identify primary sites of CUPs. The proposed research will increase the information that 
can be used to guide more personalized therapies for CUPs.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9969559
- **Project number:** 5P20GM121325-03
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA LAS VEGAS
- **Principal Investigator:** Mira Han
- **Activity code:** P20 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $291,184
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9969559

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9969559, Integrated prediction of tissue of origin in cancers of unknown primary (5P20GM121325-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9969559. Licensed CC0.

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