A signal to understand if the disease is advancing. For oncologists, and for patients, it would be really important to be able to count on alarm bells and therefore be able to act in time. In breast cancer, for example, it is essential to be able to intercept the signals of the formation of bone metastases. In fact, although bones are the site where the disease recurs most frequently, to date, there are no reliable biomarkers to predict skeletal dissemination in the early stages of the disease. The study conducted by the researchers of the Medical Oncology Unit of the University of Bari Aldo Moro in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Sheffield (UK), published in the “British Journal of Cancer”, goes in this direction.
The “spy” in liquid biopsy
To identify these signals, the Bari researchers developed a molecular method based on the RNAseq principle and applied to breast cancer cells (CTCs), whose final goal was the identification and validation of a set of genes expressed in a specific to neoplasms that had metastasized to the skeleton. A research that is part of the study of the potential clinical applications of liquid biopsy, on which the team has been working for several years. It is a procedure that involves the molecular characterization of a tumor starting from a peripheral blood sample, exploiting the ability of solid tumors to release viable cells into the systemic circulation through the vascular network that surrounds them. And it is these cells that, once they enter the bloodstream, will be able to reach distant sites from the tumor to generate metastases. Circulating tumor cells therefore play a fundamental role as markers for prognostic evaluations and for monitoring treatment in numerous solid neoplasms. In particular, the Bari research group applied the RNAseq method to CTCs isolated from breast cancer patients whose molecular analysis and subsequent computational elaborations allowed to identify a total of 31 genes which together constitute a genomic fingerprint of “Osteotropism”.
Towards a biomarker of bone metastases
These data therefore provide an important contribution to the understanding of the mechanisms that regulate the spread of mammary neoplasms towards bone tissue and could pave the way for further research, aimed at identifying “predictive” biomarkers of skeletal metastases even in early stages of the disease. finally allowing to adopt targeted therapeutic strategies and potentially able to avoid the known complications of bone metastases, such as pathological fractures, pain resistant to medical therapy, recourse to surgical procedures and radiotherapy treatments.
The study concerned breast cancer but it can certainly be applied to other solid neoplasms, known to be associated with the formation of skeletal metastases that are known to involve severe disability and worsening quality of life, with consequent additional social costs.
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