Investigating the utility of blood borne oncological biomarkers in solid tumours: glioma and melanoma
type: CreativeWork
description: Bloodborne molecular biomarkers are increasingly emerging as significant non-invasive adjuncts to current methods of disease status evaluation in cancer patients. Investigations into the potential utility of these circulating biomarkers as analytic test measures complementing radiological imaging have been occasioned by the invasive nature of malignant tumour tissue biopsy, the need for serial evaluation of tumour burden during therapy, and the need for prognostication. In a series of five studies (four clinical studies and one pre-clinical study), this research work explored the potential utility of plasma cell-free DNA, circulating tumour DNA, cell-free messenger RNA, and bloodborne tumour related proteins as disease biomarkers in patients with glioma and metastatic melanoma. The in vivo research work employed an animal model to study micro RNA mediated epigenetic regulatory mechanisms implicated in therapeutic resistance which is prevalent in melanoma brain metastasis. Specifically, this research work sought to determine whether somatic mutations identified in the plasma samples of patients with glioma were identical or representative of the somatic mutations in synchronously obtained glioma tumour tissue samples. It further sought to determine whether significant differences exist in the plasma transcriptomic profile of glioma patients relative to differences in their tumour characteristics, and also whether any observed differences were representative of synchronously obtained glioma samples and the human cancer genome atlas (TCGA) glioma derived RNA profile. Moreover, this research work explored the relationship between plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), and tumour burden in advanced melanoma patients. Furthermore, it sought to examine whether important differences exist in the plasma transcriptomic profile of advanced me…
abstract: Bloodborne molecular biomarkers are increasingly emerging as significant non-invasive adjuncts to current methods of disease status evaluation in cancer patients. Investigations into the potential utility of these circulating biomarkers as analytic test measures complementing radiological imaging have been occasioned by the invasive nature of malignant tumour tissue biopsy, the need for serial evaluation of tumour burden during therapy, and the need for prognostication. In a series of five studies (four clinical studies and one pre-clinical study), this research work explored the potential utility of plasma cell-free DNA, circulating tumour DNA, cell-free messenger RNA, and bloodborne tumour related proteins as disease biomarkers in patients with glioma and metastatic melanoma. The in vivo research work employed an animal model to study micro RNA mediated epigenetic regulatory mechanisms implicated in therapeutic resistance which is prevalent in melanoma brain metastasis. Specifically, this research work sought to determine whether somatic mutations identified in the plasma samples of patients with glioma were identical or representative of the somatic mutations in synchronously obtained glioma tumour tissue samples. It further sought to determine whether significant differences exist in the plasma transcriptomic profile of glioma patients relative to differences in their tumour characteristics, and also whether any observed differences were representative of synchronously obtained glioma samples and the human cancer genome atlas (TCGA) glioma derived RNA profile. Moreover, this research work explored the relationship between plasma cell-free DNA (cfDNA), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), plasma vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1), interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), and tumour burden in advanced melanoma patients. Furthermore, it sought to examine whether important differences exist in the plasma transcriptomic profile of advanced me…
author: Ita, Michael Itak
language: en
keywords: Micro RNA, Glioma, Melanoma, Blood borne biomarkers, Cell free DNA, Cell free messenger RNA
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
date published: 2021-07-15
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:48:42Z
provider: University College Cork
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University College Cork

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10468/13242