Cancer is a very complex disease, and some patients’ fight against it can be very long and hard. Therefore, it is important to have all the predictive tools possible to deal with the pathology.
Three times more efficient than pre-existing models
Along these lines, a new study from the Vanderbilt University Medical Center has found that a 10-second video may be enough to significantly improve the prediction of which stem cell and bone marrow transplant patients they will suffer a relapse in blood cancer.
As detailed in a study published in the middle JAMA Dermatology, In the typical immune response, white blood cells interact with the inner walls of the blood vessels, ‘rolling’ along them and adhering to them before crossing them to reach the place where the threat they are about to combat is located.
However, in patients who have received allogeneic bone marrow transplants (that is, in which the donor is not the same patient), if the levels of interaction and adherence are higher than usual are indicative of a three times higher risk of relapse and death than in a patient showing normal white blood cell activity.
Well, as the researchers explain, this activity can be measured using only a 10 second video of the microvasculature (microscopic blood vessels) of the skin.
This video is also obtained by means of a non-invasive technique (by bringing a special microscope closer to the patient’s skin) and in this way it is possible to three times higher forecast accuracy than that achieved by current models to predict relapses in patients with blood cancer who have received allogeneic transplants.
However, at the moment this technique is not available for clinical use. The study has been carried out on 56 patients, and although the results are promising, it is still precise replicate them on older cohorts for approval.
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