Project description:INTRODUCTION. Liquid biopsies are a minimally invasive collection of a patient body fluid sample. In oncology, they offer several advantages compared to traditional tissue biopsies. However, potential of this method in endometrial cancer (EC) remains poorly explored. We studied the utility of tumor educated platelets (TEPs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) for preoperative EC diagnosis, including histology determination. MATERIALS AND METHODS. TEPs from 297 subjects (53 EC patients, 40 patients with benign gynecologic conditions and 204 healthy women) were RNA-sequenced. DNA sequencing was performed in 519 primary tumor tissue samples and in16 plasma samples. Artificial intelligence was applied to sample classification. RESULTS. Platelet-dedicated classifier yielded AUC of 93.1% in test set when discriminating between healthy subjects and cancer patients. However, the discrimination between endometrial cancer and benign gynecologic conditions was relatively low, with AUC of 60.7%. ctDNA-dedicated classifier discriminated primary tumor tissue samples with AUC of 91.4% and ctDNA blood samples with AUC of 87.5%. CONCLUSIONS Liquid biopsies show potential in EC diagnosis. Both TEPs and ctDNA profiles coupled with artificial intelligence constitute a source of useful information. Further work, involving more cases, is warranted.
Project description:<p>Endometrial diseases are common gynecological diseases that disorder women of childbearing age and perimenopausal women, including endometrial polyps (EP), endometrial cancer (EC), and endometrial hyperplasia (EH). Clinically, biopsy or imaging methods are usually used to screen and diagnose endometrial diseases, but due to their invasiveness and heterogeneity, a noninvasive, convenient, objective and accurate biomarker is needed for the differential diagnosis of EP and EC or EH. In the present study, serum samples from 396 patients with endometrial disease and 225 healthy volunteers were analyzed by UPLC-Q-TOF/MS non-targeted lipidomics. A combination of multivariate (Orthogonal partial least-squares discriminant analysis) and univariate (Student t-test) analyses were used to identify and qualify 6, 8, and 7 potential biomarkers in serum from patients with EP, EC, and EH, respectively. With the aid of logistic regression algorithm and receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, A biomarker panel including four specific EP biomarkers, 6-Keto-PGF1α, PA(37:4), LysoPC(20:1) and PS (36:0), had good classification and diagnostic ability in distinguishing EP from EC or EH. The biomarker panel can be used as a rapid diagnostic method to assist imaging examination to effectively differentially diagnose endometrial diseases, and provide a reference for clinicians in the identification and diagnosis of endometrial diseases. </p>
Project description:Despite advances in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) treatment, about 20% of patients still die due to progressive disease. Current prognostic models predict treatment outcome with imperfect accuracy, and clinically relevant biomarkers are yet to be established that improve upon the International Prognostic Scoring (IPS) system. We analyzed 130 frozen diagnostic lymph node biopsies from classical HL patients by gene expression profiling to describe cellular signatures correlated with treatment outcome.
Project description:In postpartum dairy cows, subclinical endometritis (SCE) is characterized by persistent endometrial inflammation, which exerts profound detrimental effects on subsequent reproductive performance. So far, transcriptomic studies related to this condition were either based on biopsy-derived whole endometrium tissue or endometrial swab/cytobrush samples, thus neglecting cell type-specific variations in gene expression. This study tested the hypothesis that different endometrial health statuses are associated with distinct transcription profiles of endometrial stromal, glandular and luminal epithelial cells. In conclusion, this study evidences that endometrial inflammation recovery or persistence is associated with gene expression patterns involved in immune function, tissue remodelling, and uterine receptivity in a cell type-specific manner. Identifying these signatures may prove instrumental to developing novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets, either to prevent persistence or speed recovery from endometrial inflammation, thus restoring the fertility of postpartum dairy cows.
Project description:Despite advances in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) treatment, about 20% of patients still die due to progressive disease. Current prognostic models predict treatment outcome with imperfect accuracy, and clinically relevant biomarkers are yet to be established that improve upon the International Prognostic Scoring (IPS) system. We analyzed 130 frozen diagnostic lymph node biopsies from classical HL patients by gene expression profiling to describe cellular signatures correlated with treatment outcome. Diagnostic fresh-frozen lymph node specimens from 130 patients with cHL were selected for GEP from the tissue archive at the British Columbia Cancer Agency and the University of Nebraska Medical Center according to the following criteria: primary diagnosis of cHL following central review, representative lymph node tissue (at least 1 cm² area in tissue sections), HIV-negative status and first line treatment with systemic chemotherapy ABVD (doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine and dacarbazine) or ABVD-like regimen with or without radiation therapy if indicated or, in the case of seven patients with limited-stage disease, wide field radiation.
Project description:The objective of this protocol is to develop an institution-wide liquid biopsy protocol that will establish a common process for collecting blood and corresponding archived tumor specimens for future research studies at the University Health Network’s Princess Margaret Cancer Centre. Circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cfNA), including cell-free DNA (cfDNA) and cell-free RNA (cfRNA), are non-invasive, real-time biomarkers that can provide diagnostic and prognostic information before cancer diagnosis, during cancer treatment, and at disease progression. Cancer research scientists and clinicians at the Princess Margaret are interested in incorporating the collection of peripheral blood samples ("liquid biopsies") into research protocols as a means of non-invasively assessing tumor progression and response to treatment at multiple time points during a patient’s course of disease.