14 DAY TRIAL // Italian researchers have just published a new paper on the evolution of a type of skin cancer called melanoma, which reveals a new method of analyzing data from lymph nodes near the tumor to predict the overall evolution of the disease. The life expectancy of the patient can also be derived with much more accuracy than ever before.
Oncologists say that the lymph nodes located closest to a tumor are called sentinel lymph nodes, and add that they are the first nodes to have tumor cells drain through them. This is why these lymph nodes usually get affected by metastasis (the generalized spread of cancer) first.
In a paper published in the latest issue of the American Association for Cancer Research's (AACR) journal Cancer Research, scientists with the Immunotherapy Unit at the Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori in Milan, Italy, say that a specific subtype of immune cells can be used to estimate the progression of melanoma.
When these cells, called CD30-positive T cells, appear in sentinel lymph nodes, patients have a much higher chance of experiencing melanoma progression within the next five years, the researchers argue.
“Using the study of genetic profiles, we found that the sentinel node contains information useful to foresee whether or not a patient with melanoma will have an aggressive cancer,” says Monica Rodolfo, PhD, a staff scientist at the Institute.
“Although this study has a relatively small number of patients, it provides proof-of-principle that the immune system is crucially involved in controlling tumor growth, and that sentinel nodes are endowed with precise information on cancer behavior,” she goes on to say.
What the study found was that aggressive melanomas were associated with a higher concentration of T cells containing the CD30 marker. The same immune cells are also found in the bloodstreams of patients with aggressive cancers. The work is important because its conclusion can be applied to other types of cancer as well.
“The clinical implications are clear and straight: finding a way to avoid further surgery and intensive therapies to those patients who are less likely to have a recurrence, and directing these treatments instead to patients who are at high risk for recurrence,” Rodolfo adds.
Scientists may soon be able to use data such as the ones collected in this research to produce reliable tools capable of providing patients with personalized treatments for their specific types of cancer.