Could Methylation Cytometry Be a Predictive Biomarker of Breast Cancer?
Menée à partir d'échantillons sanguins prélevés sur 2 774 femmes ayant une soeur atteinte d'un cancer du sein (âge moyen : 56,6 ans), cette étude évalue l'association entre des sous-types de leucocytes circulants et le risque de développer un cancer du sein
Modifying antitumor immunity is a centerpiece of the most promising new strategies in oncologic medicine. The immune cell composition of the tumor microenvironment has been a focus of these efforts, but successful cancer immunotherapy is now also known to depend on an intact systemic immune response. At the same time, the immune events preceding overt cancer are largely unknown, and this understudied area represents a missed opportunity with great potential for cancer prevention. Filling this important gap in our understanding will require extensive population-based data collection and prospective assessment of immune status and cancer outcomes. Historically, this line of research has been impeded by the paucity of technology platforms for profiling circulating immune cells on a scale that is compatible with population-based research. The current state-of-the-art method, flow cytometry, requires intact cells with protein epitopes and entails significant technical, logistic, and cost barriers that severely limit its implementation. The study by Kresovich and colleagues is one of the first epidemiologic studies, to my knowledge, to implicate specific blood leukocyte populations in cancer risk and did so without flow cytometry. Instead, Kresovich et al applied a novel genomic technique for immune profiling based on DNA methylation and achieved a sophisticated case-control study of breast cancer risk. This study provides a glimpse into the future of large-scale immunoepidemiology.
JAMA Network Open , commentaire en libre accès, 2019