Researchers have found specific markers in blood that can tell inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) apart from other types. This discovery offers a new, less invasive way to diagnose IBC early, track its progress, and develop treatments.
A New Way to Find IBC Markers
The study used a special RNA sequencing method called Thermostable Group II Intron Reverse Transcriptase (TGIRT) sequencing. This method was developed by Alan Lambowitz's team at The University of Texas at Austin. It gives a full picture of all RNA types and amounts in a sample.
Savitri Krishnamurthy, a professor at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, and Naoto Ueno, formerly with the Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Program at UT MD Anderson, provided clinical samples and medical insights.
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Start Your News DetoxKrishnamurthy noted that these findings offer new insights into IBC. They should allow doctors to monitor the disease through a simple liquid biopsy. She added that because getting tumor samples is hard, these blood-based markers could change how treatments are developed for these patients.
Overcoming Challenges in IBC Detection
IBC is a very aggressive and deadly type of breast cancer. However, standard genome sequencing often can't tell IBC apart from other breast cancers. This is because their cancer-related gene mutations are very similar. Also, regular RNA sequencing methods struggle with complex RNA, missing a lot of information.
The UT Austin researchers used the TGIRT method, which has a stronger enzyme. This enzyme can handle difficult and fragmented RNAs, making the sequencing more reliable.
What Makes IBC Different?
TGIRT sequencing helped researchers find specific protein-coding genes unique to IBC tumors. They also found that IBC patients had high levels of noncoding RNAs and more white blood cells in their blood samples. This suggests the immune system is active and there are issues with RNA splicing, which reduces mRNA production.
In plasma samples, IBC patients had many intron RNA fragments. These are noncoding parts inside genes that are usually removed. Healthy blood, however, mostly had mRNA fragments, which are shorter, broken-down pieces of messenger RNA that are normally degraded to control gene activity.
Hope for Patients with IBC
Overall, the researchers found several potential blood-based markers for IBC in tumors, blood cells, and plasma. This could lead to better ways to diagnose and monitor the disease. These markers can also help create new treatments that target the specific features of this aggressive cancer.
Deep Dive & References: Full paper in Science Advances - Science Advances, 2024
