Search results for "biomarkers."

Current molecular and clinical insights into uveal melanoma (Review)

2021

Uveal melanoma (UM) represents the most prominent primary eye cancer in adults. With an incidence of approximately 5 cases per million individuals annually in the United States, UM could be considered a relatively rare cancer. The 90.95% of UM cases arise from the choroid. Diagnosis is based mainly on a clinical examination and ancillary tests, with ocular ultrasonography being of greatest value. Differential diagnosis can prove challenging in the case of indeterminate choroidal lesions and, sometimes, monitoring for documented growth may be the proper approach. Fine needle aspiration biopsy tends to be performed with a prognostic purpose, often in combination with radiotherapy. Gene expres…

Can KRAS and BRAF mutations limit the benefit of liver resection in metastatic colorectal cancer patients? A systematic review and meta-analysis.

2016

Clinical trials investigated the potential role of both KRAS and BRAF mutations, as prognostic biomarkers, in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients who underwent surgical treatment of CRC-related liver metastases (CLM), showing conflicting results. This meta-analysis aims to review all the studies reporting survival outcomes (recurrence free survival (RFS), and/or overall survival (OS)) of patients undergoing resection of CLM, stratified according to KRAS and/or BRAF mutation status. Background: Clinical trials investigated the potential role of both KRAS and BRAF mutations, as prognostic biomarkers, in colorectal cancer (CRC) patients who underwent surgical treatment of CRC-related liver metast…

Circulating biomarkers in osteosarcoma: new translational tools for diagnosis and treatment.

2017

Osteosarcoma (OS) is a rare primary malignant bone tumour arising from primitive bone-forming mesenchymal cells, with high incidence in children and young adults, accounting for approximately 60% of all malignant bone tumours. Currently, long-term disease-free survival can be achieved by surgical treatment plus chemotherapy in approximately 60% of patients with localized extremity disease, and in 20-30% of patients with metastatic lung or bone disease. Diagnosis of primary lesions and recurrences is achieved by using radiological investigations and standard tissue biopsy, the latter being costly, painful and hardly repeatable for patients. Therefore, despite some recent advances, novel biom…

The liquid biopsy in the management of colorectal cancer patients: Current applications and future scenarios.

2018

The term liquid biopsy refers to the analysis of biomarkers in any body fluid, including blood, urine and cerebrospinal fluid. In cancer, liquid biopsy testing allows the analysis of tumor-derived DNA, RNA, miRNA and proteins that can be either cell-free or contained in circulating tumor cells (CTC), extracellular vesicles (EVs) or platelets. A number of studies suggest that liquid biopsy testing could have a relevant role in the management of colorectal cancer (CRC) patients at different stages of the disease. Analysis of cell-free DNA (cfDNA), CTC and/or miRNA can provide relevant information for the early diagnosis of CRC and the identification of minimal residual disease and, more gener…

2020

Exosomes are nanovesicles released by all cells that can be found in the blood. A key point for their use as potential biomarkers in cancer is to differentiate tumour-derived exosomes from other circulating nanovesicles. Heat shock protein-70 (HSP70) has been shown to be abundantly expressed by cancer cells and to be associated with bad prognosis. We previously showed that exosomes derived from cancer cells carried HSP70 in the membrane while those from non-cancerous cells did not. In this work, we opened a prospective clinical pilot study including breast and lung cancer patients to determine whether it was possible to detect and quantify HSP70 exosomes in the blood of patients with solid …

Towards precision oncology for HER2 blockade in gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma

2019

Gastroesophageal adenocarcinoma (GEA) represents a very heterogeneous disease and patients in advanced stages have a very poor prognosis. Although several molecular classifications have been proposed, precision medicine for HER2-amplified GEA patients still represents a challenge. Despite improvement in clinical outcomes obtained by adding trastuzumab to first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, no other anti-HER2 agents used first-line or beyond progression have demonstrated any benefit. Several factors contribute to this failure. Among them, variable HER2 amplification assessment, tumour heterogeneity, molecular mechanisms of resistance and microenvironmental factors could limit the effecti…

ESMO consensus guidelines for the management of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer

2016

Contains fulltext : 165965.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Closed access) Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common malignancies in Western countries. Over the last 20 years, and the last decade in particular, the clinical outcome for patients with metastatic CRC (mCRC) has improved greatly due not only to an increase in the number of patients being referred for and undergoing surgical resection of their localised metastatic disease but also to a more strategic approach to the delivery of systemic therapy and an expansion in the use of ablative techniques. This reflects the increase in the number of patients that are being managed within a multidisciplinary team environment and speciali…

HSP110 T17 simplifies and improves the microsatellite instability testing in patients with colorectal cancer

2016

IF 5.65; International audience; Background Every colorectal cancer (CRC) patient should be tested for microsatellite instability (MSI, a marker for defective DNA mismatch repair) as a first screen for Lynch syndrome (LS). In this study, we investigated whether it may be possible to improve the detection of MSI in CRC. We examined whether the HT17 DNA repeat (critical for correct splicing of the chaperone HSP110) might constitute a superior marker for diagnosis of the MSI phenotype in patients with CRC compared with the standard panel of markers (pentaplex).Methods The HT17 polymorphism was analysed in germline DNA from 1037 multi-ethnic individuals. We assessed its sensitivity and specific…

Tracking the evolution of circulating exosomal-PD-L1 to monitor melanoma patients

2020

ABSTRACT In the era of immunotherapies there is an urgent need to implement the use of circulating biomarkers in clinical practice to facilitate personalized therapy and to predict treatment response. We conducted a prospective study to evaluate the usefulness of circulating exosomal-PD-L1 in melanoma patients’ follow-up. We studied the dynamics of exosomal-PD-L1 from 100 melanoma patients by using an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. We found that PD-L1 was secreted through exosomes by melanoma cells. Exosomes carrying PD-L1 had immunosuppressive properties since they were as efficient as the cancer cell from which they derive at inhibiting T-cell activation. In plasma from melanoma patie…

Immune-checkpoint inhibitors in non-small cell lung cancer: A tool to improve patients’ selection

2018

The identification of reliable predictive biomarkers of efficacy or resistance to immune-oncology (I–O) agents is a major issue for translational research and clinical practice. However, along with PDL1 and molecular features other clinical, radiological and laboratory factors can be considered for the selection of those patients who would not be the best candidate for immune-checkpoint inhibitors (ICPIs). We examined these factors, emerging from the results of currently available studies in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), aiming to provide a useful and manageable tool which can help Oncologists in their everyday clinical practice. A thorough patient evaluation and close clinical monito…