Search results for "Neoplastic Cells"
showing 10 items of 22 documents
A headlight on liquid biopsies: a challenging tool for breast cancer management
2016
Breast cancer is the most frequent carcinoma and second most common cause of cancer-related mortality in postmenopausal women. The acquisition of somatic mutations represents the main mechanism through which cancer cells overcome physiological cellular signaling pathways (e.g., PI3K/Akt/mTOR, PTEN, TP53). To date, diagnosis and metastasis monitoring is mainly carried out through tissue biopsy and/or re-biopsy, a very invasive procedure limited only to certain locations and not always feasible in clinical practice. In order to improve disease monitoring over time and to avoid painful procedure such as tissue biopsy, liquid biopsy may represent a new precious tool. Indeed, it represents a bas…
Transcriptional profiling of circulating tumor cells in multiple myeloma: a new model to understand disease dissemination
2020
The reason why a few myeloma cells egress from the bone marrow (BM) into peripheral blood (PB) remains unknown. Here, we investigated molecular hallmarks of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to identify the events leading to myeloma trafficking into the bloodstream. After using next-generation flow to isolate matched CTCs and BM tumor cells from 32 patients, we found high correlation in gene expression at single-cell and bulk levels (r ≥ 0.94, P = 10−16), with only 55 genes differentially expressed between CTCs and BM tumor cells. CTCs overexpressed genes involved in inflammation, hypoxia, or epithelial–mesenchymal transition, whereas genes related with proliferation were downregulated in CTCs…
EpCAM duality becomes this molecule in a new Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde tale.
2018
EpCAM, known as an epithelial cell adhesion molecule, plays an essential role in cell adhesion, migration, metastasis and cell signalling. Rather than acting as an apoptosis antagonist, it induces cellular proliferation that impacts the cell cycle, and as a signalling transducer it uses and enhances the Wnt pathway, which is significantly relevant in cell renewal and cancer. EpCAM has become a marker of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in lung cancer due to its specificity, and its high and stable expression level. Recent findings have allowed us to relearn and discover EpCAM again as a CSCs marker by demonstrating its role in human epithelial cancer progression. In line with this, the focus…
Detection of MET Alterations Using Cell Free DNA and Circulating Tumor Cells from Cancer Patients
2020
MET alterations may provide a potential biomarker to evaluate patients who will benefit from treatment with MET inhibitors. Therefore, the purpose of the present study is to investigate the utility of a liquid biopsy-based strategy to assess MET alterations in cancer patients. We analyzed MET amplification in circulating free DNA (cfDNA) from 174 patients with cancer and 49 healthy controls and demonstrated the accuracy of the analysis to detect its alteration in patients. Importantly, a significant correlation between cfDNA concentration and MET copy number (CN) in cancer patients (r = 0.57, p <
Prospective multicenter real-world RAS mutation comparison between OncoBEAM-based liquid biopsy and tissue analysis in metastatic colorectal cancer
2018
[EN] BACKGROUND: Liquid biopsy offers a minimally invasive alternative to tissue-based evaluation of mutational status in cancer. The goal of the present study was to evaluate the aggregate performance of OncoBEAM RAS mutation analysis in plasma of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients at 10 hospital laboratories in Spain where this technology is routinely implemented. METHODS: Circulating cell-free DNA from plasma was examined for RAS mutations using the OncoBEAM platform at each hospital laboratory. Results were then compared to those obtained from DNA extracted from tumour tissue from the same patient. RESULTS: The overall percentage agreement between plasma-based and tissue-based RAS mutatio…
Schlafen-11 (SLFN11): a step forward towards personalized medicine in small-cell lung cancer?
2018
Purpose Both temozolomide (TMZ) and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitors are active in small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). This phase II, randomized, double-blind study evaluated whether addition of the PARP inhibitor veliparib to TMZ improves 4-month progression-free survival (PFS). Patients and Methods A total of 104 patients with recurrent SCLC were randomly assigned 1:1 to oral veliparib or placebo 40 mg twice daily, days 1 to 7, and oral TMZ 150 to 200 mg/m
Opportunities and Challenges of Liquid Biopsy in Thyroid Cancer
2021
Thyroid cancer is the most common malignancy of the endocrine system, encompassing different entities with distinct histological features and clinical behavior. The diagnostic definition, therapeutic approach, and follow-up of thyroid cancers display some controversial aspects that represent unmet medical needs. Liquid biopsy is a non-invasive approach that detects and analyzes biological samples released from the tumor into the bloodstream. With the use of different technologies, tumor cells, free nucleic acids, and extracellular vesicles can be retrieved in the serum of cancer patients and valuable molecular information can be obtained. Recently, a growing body of evidence is accumulating…
Liver transplantation for hepatocellular carcinoma--is there a risk of recurrence caused by intraoperative blood salvage autotransfusion?
2011
<i>Background/Aims:</i> The use of intraoperative blood salvage autotransfusion (IBSA) during surgical approaches may contribute to tumour cell dissemination. Therefore, IBSA should be avoided in cases of malignancy. However, the risks of IBSA might be acceptable in liver transplantation (LT) for selected small hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). <i>Methods:</i> In total, 136 recipients of LT with histologically proven HCC in the explanted liver were included in this analysis. With regard to tumour recurrence, 40 patients receiving IBSA despite HCC (IBSA group) were compared to 96 patients without IBSA (non-IBSA group). <i>Results:</i> Milan criteria as asses…
Unjamming overcomes kinetic and proliferation arrest in terminally differentiated cells and promotes collective motility of carcinoma.
2019
During wound repair, branching morphogenesis and carcinoma dissemination, cellular rearrangements are fostered by a solid-to-liquid transition, known as unjamming. The biomolecular machinery behind unjamming and its pathophysiological relevance remain, however, unclear. Here, we study unjamming in a variety of normal and tumorigenic epithelial two-dimensional (2D) and 3D collectives. Biologically, the increased level of the small GTPase RAB5A sparks unjamming by promoting non-clathrin-dependent internalization of epidermal growth factor receptor that leads to hyperactivation of the kinase ERK1/2 and phosphorylation of the actin nucleator WAVE2. This cascade triggers collective motility effe…
Oxidative and Nitrosative Pattern in Circulating Leukocytes of Very Early/Early Hepatocellular Carcinoma Patients
2020
Background/aim In chronic liver disease, various immune cell subsets exert pro or anti-tumour effects by releasing reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS, RNS). Here, we evaluated the oxidative and nitrosative pattern in peripheral blood leukocyte subpopulations of early hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients compared with HCC-free cirrhotic patients. Materials and methods Venous blood samples from 18 HCC-free cirrhotic patients and 17 early stage HCC patients were collected to determine ROS, RNS and reduced glutathione levels in isolated leukocytes analyzed by flow cytometry. Results Intracellular levels of ROS and glutathione were higher in lymphocytes, monocytes, and neutrophils from…