A blood test could predict the risk of recurrence for patients with breast cancer

July 9, 2019 – 13:02 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net – A special blood test can one day predict if a newly diagnosed bad cancer According to Medical Xpress, a study of the City of Hope suggests that the patient will likely relapse years later.

"This is the first successful combination of a solid tumor with blood biomarkers – an indicator of patient's sustained remission," said Peter P. Lee, MD, director of the department's immuno-oncology department. Hope City and corresponding author of the study. "When cancer is diagnosed for the first time, it is important to identify patients at higher risk of relapse for more aggressive treatments and monitoring." Genomic badysis of the tumor is currently available for risk stratification.However, a predictive blood test would be even more appealing but is not yet available.We are trying to change the status quo. "

The effectiveness of a person's anti-tumor immune response is determined by the balance between pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory signaling pathways in response to cytokines, according to the study. Nature Immunology of July 8th. Lee and colleagues used data from 40 bad cancer patients followed for an average of four years. The results were validated in a separate cohort of 38 additional bad cancer patients to create a baseline to predict whether a patient with bad cancer will likely relapse in a few years.

The balance of cytokine signaling responses in "peripheral blood immune cells" – the engine of a healthy immune system – is an indicator of the general state of the immune system of a nobody, said Lee, professor of the Billy Chair and Audrey L. Wilder of Immunotherapeutics at City. d & # 39; hope.

"These discoveries could therefore go beyond cancer to attack other diseases that the immune system must fight," he added. "This general approach may also be useful for predicting outcomes in patients with autoimmune and infectious diseases."

The peripheral blood immune cells of a cancer patient, an essential part of the immune system, tend to have a decrease in pro-inflammatory cytokine signaling responses and an increase in immunosuppressive cytokine signaling responses, which which means that a systemic immune environment is created, which promotes the spread of cancer.

Lee and colleagues have badyzed the signaling responses to many pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in different types of immune cells present in the peripheral blood of bad cancer patients and recently diagnosed. They found a change in signaling of four different cytokines (two pro and two anti-inflammatory drugs) in regulatory T cells in some patients. These cytokine signaling patterns in peripheral blood at the time of diagnosis reflect the state of the immune system and predict a relapse within three to five years.

Scientists used their data to create a cytokine signaling index (CSI), a kind of reference. The idea is that a patient can submit to a blood test and forward his data with the help of an algorithm that will issue a figure that will inform doctors of the risk of cancer recurrence. of the patient in the next three to five years.

"Knowing the risk of cancer relapse will tell doctors how important a patient's cancer treatment should be," said Lee. "The CSI is a comprehensive reflection of the patient's immune system at the time of diagnosis, which, as we now know, is a determinant of future relapse."