2024 Hot Topic in Basic & Translational Science: Tolerance & Resistance to Targeted Therapy in NSCLC - Posters-PP01.08: Pilot Study to Evaluate the Potential of the Tumor-Educated Platelets (TEP) as the Tool to Detect Minimal Residual Disease and Drug Resistance

PP01.08: Pilot Study to Evaluate the Potential of the Tumor-Educated Platelets (TEP) as the Tool to Detect Minimal Residual Disease and Drug Resistance

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The study explores the use of tumor-educated platelets (TEPs) to detect minimal residual disease and predict drug resistance in lung cancer patients. TEPs show altered gene expression in cancer patients compared to healthy individuals and can provide insights into cancer presence and progression. The research involved a pilot study with ten non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients and ten healthy volunteers who provided peripheral blood samples. These samples were processed using two methods to isolate platelets – traditional centrifugation and a novel acoustic separation technique.<br /><br />The acoustic separation method, which uses ultrasound in microchannels, showed better efficiency in platelet collection, with higher yield and RNA recovery rates than centrifugation. However, it had a slightly higher, although negligible, leukocyte contamination rate.<br /><br />Gene expression analyses, including whole transcriptome assessment, were performed using platelets, blood mononuclear cells, and tumor tissues. Unsupervised hierarchical clustering on top expressed genes distinguished patient samples into distinct clusters, with most cancer patients in Cluster A and healthy individuals in Cluster B. Notably, among the NSCLC patients analyzed postoperatively, those without disease recurrence shifted from Cluster A to B, while patients with recurrence mostly remained in Cluster A. This suggests that TEP analysis holds promise in predicting disease recurrence or progression.<br /><br />In conclusion, TEP analysis, particularly with acoustic platelet separation, is a potentially useful tool for early detection of disease relapse and monitoring the effectiveness of targeted cancer treatments. The study findings support the further exploration of TEPs as biomarkers for cancer progression and treatment resistance.

Asset Subtitle

Shuta Ohara

Keywords

tumor-educated platelets

minimal residual disease

drug resistance

lung cancer

gene expression

acoustic separation

NSCLC

biomarkers

disease recurrence

cancer progression