While COVID-19 has dominated much of the time and energy of medical services, many other health issues have fallen behind in terms of diagnosis or treatment scheduling. For example, for many women with ovarian or uterine cancer, the slowdown of many medical services.
In a new study by researchers at Nagourney Cancer Institute, the University of California-Irvine, Federal University in Brazil and Todd Cancer Institute published in Gynecologic Oncology, metabolic signatures found in the blood of gynecologic cancer patients determined those that would be at the highest risk of relapse.
If oncologists know beforehand that platinum-based chemotherapy is unlikely to work for certain patients, it could greatly help inform treatment decisions. More rapid and efficient drug targeting can be crucial in helping patients who may not have time to try multiple treatment plans and options.
Through the use of Mass Spectrometry, the researchers were able to identify metabolic signatures found in the blood of gynecologic cancer patients and could determine those that would be at the highest risk of relapse.
This is important in the context of what is known as ‘platinum resistance’, which is the lack of response within six months of platinum-based chemotherapy, is an important determinant of survival in gynecologic cancer.
The importance is that if oncologists know beforehand that platinum-based chemotherapy is unlikely to work for certain patients, it can greatly help inform treatment decisions. More rapid and efficient drug targeting can be crucial in helping patients who may not have time to try multiple treatment plans and options.
The finding holds the possibility of a future where oncologists could use a blood test done at the time of diagnosis to better manage patients with advanced gynecologic malignancies.
For the research, 47 patients with adenocarcinoma of the ovary or uterus who were candidates for carboplatin plus paclitaxel submitted blood for quantitation of metabolites and surgical specimens for the isolation 3-dimensional organoids used to measure individual patient platinum resistance.
The collected data was correlated with response, time to progression and survival.
The study is led by Dr. Nagourney and it appears in the journal Gynecologic Oncology, titled “Platinum resistance in gynecologic malignancies: Response, disease free and overall survival are predicted by biochemical signature: A metabolomic analysis.”
