Abstract 667: Immunoprofiling circulating blood as a means to early detection of solid tumors

Abstract

Abstract Our goal was to evaluate whether profiling Myeloid Derived Suppressor Cells (MDSCs) in circulation correlated with the existence and stage of multiple, biopsy-verified solid tumor types and to evaluate whether such analyses could enable early detection. The tumor micro-environment (TME) is replete with numerous immune cells, and the type and concentration of such cells can provide prognostic information. The link between high concentrations of MDSCs and poor prognosis is most likely due to the immuno-suppressive effects of such cells. Some fraction of these cells spill into the blood stream. We utilized flow cytometry to phenotypically quantify subsets of MDSCs and other leukocytes in the circulation of biopsy-verified cancer patients, as well as in age and sex matched healthy donors. Our results indicate a marked increase in MDSC levels in the circulation of tumor patients relative to healthy donors. We have analyzed patients presenting over a dozen solid tumor types (lung, breast, ovarian, colon, melanoma, liver, thyroid, pancreatic, uterine, osteosarcoma, appendiceal, leiomyosarcoma, liposarcoma, and vulvar) and found notable differences in the immune-profiles of circulating blood in these patients. It appears that the immune response, as measured by our flow cytometry technique, is general for most tumor types. We will present correlations and inter-relations between different cell types and evidence of tumors. While our studies to date have been performed in an unblinded manner, we will present performance data (specificity and sensitivity) for our approach. Citation Format: Amit Kumar, Dimitry Gabrilovich, Frank J. Rauscher, George Dominguez, Cyrus Sholevar, John Roop, Anthony Campisi, Alexander Polo. Immunoprofiling circulating blood as a means to early detection of solid tumors [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 667. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-667