Department of Anatomy, University of Ghana Medical School, University of Ghana, Accra P.O. Box GP 4236, Ghana.
Department of Surgery, University of Ghana Medical School, University of Ghana, Accra P.O. Box GP 4236, Ghana.
Med Sci (Basel). 2021 May 25;9(2):37. doi: 10.3390/medsci9020037.
Breast cancer is the most common malignancy in women, with alarming mortalities. Neoadjuvant treatments employ chemotherapy to shrink tumours to a well-defined size for a better surgical outcome. The current means of assessing effectiveness of chemotherapy management are imprecise. We previously showed that breast cancer patients have higher serum circulating cell-free DNA concentrations. cfDNA is degraded cellular DNA fragments released into the bloodstream. We further report on the utility of cfDNA in assessing the response to chemotherapy and its potential as a monitoring biomarker. A total of 32 newly diagnosed and treatment-naive female breast cancer patients and 32 healthy females as controls were included. Anthropometric, demographic and clinicopathological information of participants were recorded. Each participant donated 5 mL of venous blood from which sera were separated. Blood sampling was carried out before the commencement of chemotherapy (timepoint 1) and after the third cycle of chemotherapy (timepoint 2). qPCR was performed on the sera to quantify ALU 115 and 247 levels, and DNA integrity (ALU247/ALU115) was determined. ALU 115 and 247 levels were elevated in cancer patients but were significantly decreased after the third cycle of chemotherapy (T2) compared to T1. DNA integrity increased after the third cycle. Serum cfDNA may provide a relatively inexpensive and minimally invasive procedure to evaluate the response to chemotherapy in breast cancer.
乳腺癌是女性最常见的恶性肿瘤，死亡率令人震惊。新辅助治疗采用化疗使肿瘤缩小到可接受的大小，以获得更好的手术效果。目前评估化疗管理效果的方法并不精确。我们之前表明，乳腺癌患者的血清循环无细胞 DNA 浓度较高。cfDNA 是释放到血液中的细胞降解 DNA 片段。我们进一步报告了 cfDNA 在评估化疗反应中的效用及其作为监测生物标志物的潜力。共纳入 32 名新诊断和未经治疗的女性乳腺癌患者和 32 名健康女性作为对照。记录了参与者的人体测量、人口统计学和临床病理信息。每位参与者从静脉抽取 5 毫升血液，分离血清。在化疗开始前（时间点 1）和第三个化疗周期后（时间点 2）进行血液采样。对血清进行 qPCR 以定量 ALU 115 和 247 水平，并确定 DNA 完整性（ALU247/ALU115）。癌症患者的 ALU 115 和 247 水平升高，但与 T1 相比，第三个化疗周期（T2）后明显降低。第三个周期后 DNA 完整性增加。血清 cfDNA 可能提供一种相对便宜且微创的方法来评估乳腺癌对化疗的反应。
