Genetic and Genomic Biomarkers of Cancer

A special issue of Biomolecules (ISSN 2218-273X). This special issue belongs to the section "Molecular Biomarkers".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2024 | Viewed by 2514

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
Department of Pathology, Sealy Center for Cancer Cell Biology, University of Texas Medical Branch, 5.202 John Sealy Annex, 301 University Boulevard, Galveston, TX 77555, USA
Interests: laboratory genetics and genomics; genetic and genomic biomarkers; cancer biology
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Genetic and genomic assays are increasingly being used in medical practice. Cancer genetic and genomic tests typically analyze nucleic acid-based biomarkers and can be diagnostic, prognostic, or predictive. Cancer diagnostic tests are used for cancer screening, diagnosis, subtyping, and staging; cancer prognostic tests reveal the nature course of cancer, disease outcome, and recurrence risk, whereas cancer predictive tests provide information on the likely response of a patient to a drug or therapy. Often, a single genetic or genomic oncology test can be applied to several clinical scenarios. Genetic and genomic tests are expected to have ever-increasing impact on the clinical management of cancer patients. For example, such tests are developed to select patients who will benefit from a targeted therapy, monitor the development of treatment resistance, assess recurrence following treatment, modify the dose of a therapeutic, and identify the pharmacogenetic risk of adverse drug reactions. This way, the optimal treatment is determined for every patient, non-effective treatments can be spared, and side-effects can be avoided, thus leading to personalized and precision cancer management.

This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances made in the utility of genetic and genomic assays in medical oncology. I encourage basic, translational, and clinical researchers to present original research articles and reviews, emphasizing the current preclinical and clinical advancement of laboratory genetics and genomics in clinical oncology.

I look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Jianli Dong
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • laboratory genetics and genomics
  • genetic and genomic biomarkers
  • diagnostic
  • prognostic
  • predictive
  • companion diagnosis
  • targeted therapy

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

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13 pages, 2043 KiB  
Article
A Challenging Correlation between Tumor Cellularity and Somatic Variant Allele Fraction in Lung and Colorectal Cancers—Specimens of Low Tumor Percentage Should Be Analyzed with Caution
by Samaneh K. Zarabi, Lidong Zhai and Yu-Wei Cheng
Biomolecules 2024, 14(2), 168; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom14020168 - 31 Jan 2024
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Abstract
Background and aims: The percentage of tumor cells (tumor cellularity) in a cancerous tissue has been assumed to correlate with the variant allele fraction (VAF) of an identified pathogenic variant. Many laboratories use the tumor cellularity as part of a quality criteria for [...] Read more.
Background and aims: The percentage of tumor cells (tumor cellularity) in a cancerous tissue has been assumed to correlate with the variant allele fraction (VAF) of an identified pathogenic variant. Many laboratories use the tumor cellularity as part of a quality criteria for specimen processing and clinical reporting. However, a systematic study of such correlation has yet to be shown. We performed a relatively large-scale study to determine whether pathologist-estimated tumor cellularity is correlated with next-generation sequencing (NGS)-derived VAF. Materials and Methods: A total of 1511 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and colorectal cancer (CRC) specimens, including formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded (FFPE) and fine needle aspirated (FNA) tissues, were analyzed by cancer hotspot NGS. For a given specimen, pathogenic variants of BRAF, EGFR, KRAS, and NRAS were identified and the determined VAFs were correlated with the corresponding tissue tumor cellularity. Results: The coefficient of determination R-squared (R2) values were calculated for each correlation. All R2 values were lower than 0.25, indicating poor correlations. Pathogenic variants were found, not uncommonly, in tumor specimens that carried 10% or lower tumor cellularity. There were no apparent differences of R2 values between the FFPE and FNA specimens. Conclusion: In both NSCLC and CRC, the lack of linear relationship between tumor cellularity and VAF was found across a wide range of tumor cell percentages. Caution should be used when using tumor cellularity to triage specimens for NGS testing. The tumor cellularity should be considered in relation to the limit of detection of the specific assay for the proper interpretation of a negative test result. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Genomic Biomarkers of Cancer)
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Review

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21 pages, 1861 KiB  
Review
Circular RNAs in Breast Cancer: An Update
by Haolin Bao, Jiehan Li, Qihang Zhao, Qingling Yang and Yi Xu
Biomolecules 2024, 14(2), 158; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/biom14020158 - 29 Jan 2024
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Abstract
Breast cancer (BC), characterized by high heterogeneity, is the most commonly reported malignancy among females across the globe. Every year, many BC patients die owing to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Increasing researches have indicated that aberrantly expressed circular RNAs (circRNAs) are implicated in [...] Read more.
Breast cancer (BC), characterized by high heterogeneity, is the most commonly reported malignancy among females across the globe. Every year, many BC patients die owing to delayed diagnosis and treatment. Increasing researches have indicated that aberrantly expressed circular RNAs (circRNAs) are implicated in the tumorigenesis and progression of various tumors, including BC. Hence, this article provides a summary of the biogenesis and functions of circRNAs, as well as an examination of how circRNAs regulate the progression of BC. Moreover, circRNAs have aroused incremental attention as potential diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers for BC. Exosomes enriched with circRNAs can be secreted into the tumor microenvironment to mediate intercellular communication, affecting the progression of BC. Detecting the expression levels of exosomal circRNAs may provide reference for BC diagnosis and prognosis prediction. Illuminating insights into the earlier diagnosis and better treatment regimens of BC will be potentially available following elucidation of deeper regulatory mechanisms of circRNAs in this malignancy. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Genetic and Genomic Biomarkers of Cancer)
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