Background Liquid biopsy is mainly used to identify tumor cells in pulmonary neoplasms. It is more often used in research than in clinical practice. The BL-MOL-AR study aims to investigate the efficacy of next-generation sequencing (NGS) and clinical interpretation of the circulating free DNA (cfDNA) levels. This study reports the preliminary results from the first samples analyzed from patients affected by various neoplasms: lung, intestinal, mammary, gastric, biliary, and cutaneous. Methods The Biopsia Liquida-Molecolare-Arezzo study aims to enroll cancer patients affected by various malignancies, including pulmonary, intestinal, advanced urothelial, biliary, breast, cutaneous, and gastric malignancies. Thirty-nine patients were included in this preliminary report. At time zero, a liquid biopsy is executed, and two types of NGS panels are performed, comprising 17 genes in panel 1, which is already used in the routine tissue setting, and 52 genes in panel 2. From the 7th month after enrollment, 10 sequential liquid biopsies are performed up to the 17th month. The variant allele frequency (%) and cfDNA levels (ng/mL) are measured in every plasmatic sample. Results The NGS results obtained by different panels are similar even though the number of mutations is more concordant for lung pathologies. There are no significant differences in the actionability levels of the identified variants. Most of the molecular profiles of liquid biopsies reflect tissue data. Conclusions Preliminary data from this study confirm the need to clarify the limitations and potential of liquid biopsy beyond the lung setting. Overall, parameters related to cfDNA levels and variant allele frequency could provide important indications for prognosis and disease monitoring.
BACKGROUND: Among patients with defects of the phagocytic component of the immune system, chronic haemodialysis patients are highly susceptible to microbial infections characterized by high morbidity/mortality, related to an impairment of the phagocytic response. Therefore the potential influence of dialysis membrane biocompatibility on the activity of polymorphonuclear (PMN) granulocytes from dialysis patients was investigated in this study. METHODS: Nineteen patients in haemodialysis were included in the protocol and divided into two groups: a control group (7 patients) and a study group (12 patients). The study group patients were treated for subsequent periods of 1 month with different dialysis membranes: low flux excebrane E membrane (CL-E), low flux polysulfone (PS). The control group patients were treated with a low flux modified cellulose membrane (SMC) for the entire observation period. The aetiology of end-stage renal disease included glomerulonephritis, nephroangiosclerosis and interstitial nephropathy. Following each period of treatment, clinical and haematological parameters were evaluated; phagocytosis and microbicidal activity of PMNs from uraemic patients against Klebsiella pneumoniae, the pathogen which can pose severe problems in immune depressed patients, were investigated in parallel. RESULTS: The data evidence that both clinical and haematological parameters remained unchanged during the study period and no differences were found among treatments. On the contrary, the PMN activity varied according to the type of the membrane. In fact, the use of both PS and CL-E, in contrast to SMC, resulted in a PMN functionality similar to that observed in healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS: These results provide evidence that the depressed PMN activities in dialysis patients may be influenced by membrane biocompatibility in such a way to be totally restored.
Biocompatible Materials , Membranes, Artificial , Neutrophils/physiology , Renal Dialysis , Aged , Female , Humans , Male
