Effect of short-term storage of blood samples on gene expression in lung cancer patients
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Eva Obermayr
, Nina Koppensteiner
, Nicole Heinzl , Eva Schuster , Barbara Holzer , Hannah Fabikan , Christoph Weinlinger , Oliver Illini , Maximilian J. Hochmair und Robert Zeillinger
Abstract
Objectives
The stability of gene transcripts associated with the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been predominantly studied in cultured cancer cell lines added to blood samples under artificial conditions. In the present study the effect of storage on CTC-related transcripts was assessed in blood samples taken from patients with non-small lung cancer (n=58).
Methods
The blood samples were split in two equal parts to compare the gene expression with and without storage for 24 h at ambient temperature without preservative added. After enrichment using the microfluidic Parsortix® technology, the expression levels of selected genes were assessed using quantitative PCR following a gene-specific pre-amplification. The prognostic relevance of each gene in fresh and stored blood samples was evaluated using the R-package Survminer.
Results
Some genes were either not affected (TWIST1, CDH5, CK19) or upregulated upon storage (NANOG, MET, UCHL1) but still associated with poor prognosis. In contrast, ERBB3, PTHLH, EpCAM, and TERT were no longer associated with the overall survival of the patients.
Conclusions
The study demonstrates the surprising stability of CTC-related transcripts, which makes overnight shipping of native blood samples possible. Careful verification is required when using model systems – such as normal blood spiked with tumor cells – or other CTC-related markers, as individual transcripts may respond differently to storage.
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Research funding: This study received support from Angle plc. in the form of an in-kind contribution of Parsortix® PR1 devices and microfluidic separation cassettes. ANGLE plc. had no influence on the design of the study, in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data.
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Author contributions: All authors have accepted responsibility for the entire content of this manuscript and approved its submission.
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Competing interests: All authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Informed consent: Informed consent was obtained from all individuals included in this study.
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Ethical approval: The study was approved by the Ethic Committee of the Medical University of Vienna, Austria (EK366/2003 and EK2266/2018).
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Supplementary Material
The online version of this article offers supplementary material (https://doi.org/10.1515/cclm-2022-0738).
© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Standardization and harmonization in laboratory medicine: not only for clinical chemistry measurands
- Mini Review
- The effect of the immunoassay curve fitting routine on bias in troponin
- Opinion Papers
- An overview of the most important preanalytical factors influencing the clinical performance of SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs)
- Time to address quality control processes applied to antibody testing for infectious diseases
- Perspectives
- Definition and application of performance specifications for measurement uncertainty of 23 common laboratory tests: linking theory to daily practice
- The gaps between the new EU legislation on in vitro diagnostics and the on-the-ground reality
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Second-generation Elecsys cerebrospinal fluid immunoassays aid diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s disease
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- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- A zlog-based algorithm and tool for plausibility checks of reference intervals
- Harmonization of indirect reference intervals calculation by the Bhattacharya method
- Red blood cell parameters in early childhood: a prospective cohort study
- Cancer Diagnostics
- Association of circulating free and total oxysterols in breast cancer patients
- Effect of short-term storage of blood samples on gene expression in lung cancer patients
- Infectious Diseases
- Operation Moonshot: rapid translation of a SARS-CoV-2 targeted peptide immunoaffinity liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry test from research into routine clinical use
- Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Italy in newborn dried blood spots
- Positivization time of a COVID-19 rapid antigen self-test predicts SARS-CoV-2 viral load: a proof of concept
- New insights into SARS-CoV-2 Lumipulse G salivary antigen testing: accuracy, safety and short TAT enhance surveillance
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- Prognostic value of procalcitonin in cancer patients with coronavirus disease 2019
- 24/7 workflow for bloodstream infection diagnostics in microbiology laboratories: the first step to improve clinical management
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- Diagnostic value of procalcitonin, hypersensitive C-reactive protein and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio for bloodstream infections in pediatric tumor patients
- Letters to the Editor
- Pseudohyponatremia: interference of hyperglycemia on indirect potentiometry
- Ligand binding assay-related underestimation of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in pregnant women exaggerates the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency
- Urokinase-type plasminogen activator soluble receptor (suPAR) assay in clinical routine: evaluation one year after its introduction in the high automation corelab of the A. Gemelli hospital
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Artikel in diesem Heft
- Frontmatter
- Editorial
- Standardization and harmonization in laboratory medicine: not only for clinical chemistry measurands
- Mini Review
- The effect of the immunoassay curve fitting routine on bias in troponin
- Opinion Papers
- An overview of the most important preanalytical factors influencing the clinical performance of SARS-CoV-2 antigen rapid diagnostic tests (Ag-RDTs)
- Time to address quality control processes applied to antibody testing for infectious diseases
- Perspectives
- Definition and application of performance specifications for measurement uncertainty of 23 common laboratory tests: linking theory to daily practice
- The gaps between the new EU legislation on in vitro diagnostics and the on-the-ground reality
- General Clinical Chemistry and Laboratory Medicine
- Second-generation Elecsys cerebrospinal fluid immunoassays aid diagnosis of early Alzheimer’s disease
- Evaluation of the interchangeability between the new fully-automated affinity chrome-mediated immunoassay (ACMIA) and the Quantitative Microsphere System (QMS) with a CE-IVD-certified LC-MS/MS assay for therapeutic drug monitoring of everolimus after solid organ transplantation
- Quantitative detection of anti-PLA2R antibodies targeting different epitopes and its clinical application in primary membranous nephropathy
- Reference Values and Biological Variations
- A zlog-based algorithm and tool for plausibility checks of reference intervals
- Harmonization of indirect reference intervals calculation by the Bhattacharya method
- Red blood cell parameters in early childhood: a prospective cohort study
- Cancer Diagnostics
- Association of circulating free and total oxysterols in breast cancer patients
- Effect of short-term storage of blood samples on gene expression in lung cancer patients
- Infectious Diseases
- Operation Moonshot: rapid translation of a SARS-CoV-2 targeted peptide immunoaffinity liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry test from research into routine clinical use
- Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in Italy in newborn dried blood spots
- Positivization time of a COVID-19 rapid antigen self-test predicts SARS-CoV-2 viral load: a proof of concept
- New insights into SARS-CoV-2 Lumipulse G salivary antigen testing: accuracy, safety and short TAT enhance surveillance
- Preanalytical stability of SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid antibodies
- Prognostic value of procalcitonin in cancer patients with coronavirus disease 2019
- 24/7 workflow for bloodstream infection diagnostics in microbiology laboratories: the first step to improve clinical management
- Diagnostic performance of machine learning models using cell population data for the detection of sepsis: a comparative study
- Diagnostic value of procalcitonin, hypersensitive C-reactive protein and neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio for bloodstream infections in pediatric tumor patients
- Letters to the Editor
- Pseudohyponatremia: interference of hyperglycemia on indirect potentiometry
- Ligand binding assay-related underestimation of 25-hydroxyvitamin D in pregnant women exaggerates the prevalence of vitamin D insufficiency
- Urokinase-type plasminogen activator soluble receptor (suPAR) assay in clinical routine: evaluation one year after its introduction in the high automation corelab of the A. Gemelli hospital
- Is this a true lambda free light chain?
- Effect of various blood collection tubes on serum lithium and other electrolytes: our perspective from a tertiary healthcare institute