Blood immune cells affect the survival of cancer

The immune systems of patients with cancer are highly disturbed, and people who have a larger number of immune cells in the blood, have a better survival rate, finds a new study using a pioneering technique developed by scientists from UCL and Francis Crick Institute.

Tool described in Nature GeneticsIt is called immune lymphocyte estimation based on nucleotide sequencing (Immunelens). It enables researchers to calculate the proportions of T cells and B cells (types of immune cells) based on the data of the entire genome sequencing (WGS).

Sequencing of the entire genome (WGS) uses a blood sample to create a full record of a given person, genetic instructions that determine who they are. Understanding these instructions, scientists can find important information, such as the number of immune cells that a person has if there are any changes in their genes and how his body fights the disease. This can be helpful in studying genetic diseases such as cancer.

The team used immune to analyze over 90,000 WGS samples from the 100,000 Genomes project, a study conducted by Genomics England and NHS England, which included the genomes of healthy people and cancer patients.

They discovered that patients with cancer had a lower percentage of cells that circulate in their blood compared to healthy individuals. In addition, it was found that the ratio of T cells is a strong predictor of cancer results, with higher proportions associated with 47% fewer deaths within five years after surgery. This effect was still significant when he took into account the age, stage of cancer and in all types of cancer.

The team claims that these biological markers can be easily added to current genetic diagnostic tests that would provide clinicians with more information on basic treatment plans.

Most of the analysis of the immune system so far has focused on the tumor itself, so the results that we see using this new technique – which examines the number of immune cells in the blood of a person – are significant. What happens to the blood cells in the blood seems to have a huge impact on cancer survival and can be able to predict how long the cancer patient survives better than the number of T cells in the tumor itself.

In previous studies there were tips that this may be important, but the ability to analyze information of the immune system on this scale turns into the game. The ability to compare immune cell changes in the blood and with what is happening in the cancer environment opens up new possibilities of cancer research, as well as wider healthcare studies.

If prognosisIt can help clinicians decide on the best course of the unit’s treatment. “

Professor Nicholas McSgranahan, senior author of the study, UCL Cancer Institute

Cancer is a disease caused primarily by genetic mutations in the body’s cells, with certain mutations associated with individual types of cancer. While immune cells can recognize and eliminate dangerous mutations, cancer often avoids this answer and disrupts the immune system.

Therefore, the assessment of changes both in the area around the tumor (local immune environment) and in a wider immune system is of key importance to understanding the development of cancer and predicting how the patient can react to treatment.

Large -scale initiatives, such as a design of 100,000 genomes, which contains data from all over the genome collected from over 90,000 NHS patients affected by a rare disease or cancer, allowed researchers to see the full spectrum of genetic changes in health and cancer cells. But understanding the precise makeup of immune cells in the tumor and a wider immune environment has not been possible so far.

Immunelens is based on the previous method of 2021, which enabled the calculation of the ratio of T cells in the given excess.

Although it is known that in healthy people the percentage of immune cells in the blood decreases with age, the team said that this was happening earlier in people with cancer.

This effect was more clear in men than women of cancer, but it is not clear why these sexual differences exist or whether they have an impact on the general survival of cancer.

They also noticed that people who were seemingly healthy when their sample was taken to sequencing, which then developed cancer, had the average level of B -cells in the blood. This may result from the undiagnosed early stage cancer or pre -cancerous changes in the immune system , which can potentially be an early sign of the disease and even a factor in cancer development.

This information can be used in the future to detect cancer early or help clinicians understand how the patient can react to treatment.

Dr. Robert Bentham, the first author of the study from the UCL Cancer Institute, said: “Many approaches that the immune cells from genetic data measure, resemble the search for a needle in a haystack. Our approach in this study looks at the hay cone itself and asks and asks how the presence of immune cells changes its overall shape.

“One of the things that will allow us to do is to build significant sets of immune data using data that we already have from many large Kohort WGS, but so far it has not been able to interrogate. It will allow researchers to examine what is happening in health and diseases, not only in the case of cancer, but potentially in many areas of medicine. “

This method also allows you to easily distinguish between different types of B cells. As the B cells are matured, they specialize in the production of a kind of antibody (protein, the role of which is to neutralize harmful substances, such as viruses, bacteria and mutated cells). The team used this specialization process to identify B cells and their classification.

When this method was applied to WGS data, it revealed that B cells producing IgM/D antibodies in the blood (produced when the body first encounters a foreign antigen) were the only type of B cells associated with better results of patients survival with cancer, these cells may play A key role in anti -cancer resistance. They also have potential as a new biological marker of cancer diagnosis, which makes them a promising goal of future research.

One of the next steps for scientists will be to take advantage of these biological markers at the clinic, which, they claim, can be added to the current tests battery for patients with cancer without additional costs. Professor McSgranahan and his team recently received CRUK funds Biomarker The Project Award to enable further work on translating it into a clinic.

This may be especially useful for predicting the patient’s answer to immunotherapyBecause while the percentage of T cells in tumor is a well -known biomarker, it cannot be measured using current standard genomic tests.

Dr. Nisharnthi Duggan, an information manager about Cancer Research UK, said: “Cancer Research UK is pleased to support this ongoing research work, or measuring the levels of immune cell levels in our blood can help anticipate cancer survival. We live in a golden age, in which we can use patients’ data in a sophisticated way to help us better understand cancer and how to overcome them.

“Further research is necessary, but one day it can become a tool that helps doctors personalize the treatment of people with cancer.”

The study is part of the Tracerx project financed by Cancer UK.

The study was possible thanks to access to data and arrangements generated by the 100,000 Genomes project, managed by Genomics England.