Researchers have identified blood-based biomarkers in tumors, peripheral blood cells, and plasma that may help to differentiate between inflammatory breast cancer and non–inflammatory breast cancer, according to findings published in Science Advances.
“These findings provide new insights into inflammatory breast cancer that should enable clinicians to monitor disease progression simply through liquid biopsy,” said Savitri Krishnamurthy, MD, Professor of Anatomic Pathology at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. “Because it is so difficult to obtain tumor samples, these blood-based biomarkers could be truly transformative in developing treatments for this patient population.”
Background and Study Methods
Previously, there were no known genomic differentiators for inflammatory breast cancer vs non–inflammatory breast cancer.
Researchers conducted TGIRT sequencing for a more comprehensive look at RNA types and amounts to distinguish between patients with inflammatory breast cancer and those with non–inflammatory breast cancer.
They created methods for parallel analysis of transcriptional and posttranscriptional gene regulation in patients with breast cancer by mapping reads to genome and transcriptome reference sequences as well as by quantitating intron-to-exon read depth ratios (IDRs).
Key Findings
The researchers found many protein-coding genes in patients with inflammatory breast cancer and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) with high IDRs, which suggested to the study authors that rate-limiting RNA splicing may decrease mRNA production.
Overrepresented protein-coding gene RNAs in plasma from patients with inflammatory breast cancer mostly had intron RNA fragments vs mRNA fragments in patients with non–inflammatory breast cancer and healthy donors.
The findings could improve diagnostics for patients with inflammatory breast cancer and help to monitor disease progression more effectively. Additionally, the biomarkers could be used to develop new therapeutic strategies that target the unique features of inflammatory breast cancer.
DISCLOSURES: This work was funded by the National Institutes of Health, The Welch Foundation, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the UT MD Anderson Morgan Welch Inflammatory Breast Cancer Research Program and Clinic, and the State of Texas Rare and Aggressive Breast Cancer Research Program. For full disclosures of the study authors, visit science.org.
