Scientists have identified key changes in immune cells within cancerous tumours that could help improve the development of treatments.
The study also found a set of genes that are expressed at high levels in breast cancer tumours and linked to more aggressive cancer types.
Researchers say the discoveries offer clues to diagnosis and predicting patient survival and reveal significant insights into how tumours behave in common cancers.
Immune cells normally help the body stay healthy by warding off pathogens such as viruses and bacteria. However, sometimes immune cells can wrongly identify cancer tissue as healthy tissue, aiding the spread of tumours.
Researchers therefore focused on the role of immune cells in endometrium and breast cancers.
Until now, little was known about how these cells behave in human cancer, making them difficult to spot and target.
They found differences in white blood cells known as monocytes present in the blood of breast and endometrial cancer patients compared with those in healthy individuals.
The discovery could accelerate the development of biomarkers to detect cancer and track how patients respond to treatment.
The researchers also identified 37 genes that were highly expressed in breast cancer tumour immune cells – known as tumour-associated macrophages (TAMs) – compared with healthy tissue.
This genetic signature is particularly strong in aggressive cancers, including triple negative breast cancer, which is notoriously difficult to treat.
It is also linked to shorter survival in patients, suggesting that it could be used to improve the accuracy of breast cancer prognosis.
The scientists used this discovery to identify specific genes within the signature that could be targeted with future treatments. They honed in on two genes – SIGLEC1 and CCL8 – which were found to be linked to patient survival.
University of Edinburgh https://tinyurl.com/y3u4xyt2

A team led by Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center investigators reports that a new laboratory test they developed to identify chemical changes to a group of cancer-related genes can accurately detect which breast tumours are cancerous or benign, and do it in far less time than gold-standard tests on biopsied breast tissue.
Although the findings are preliminary and need further validation in larger groups of people, the investigators say the test has the potential to dramatically reduce the time (minimum by one month, maximum by 15 months) generally needed to make a definitive breast cancer diagnosis in poorer countries.  A quick diagnosis has already been definitively proven to boost survival for all cancers by reducing wait times to surgical and other treatments. A report on the test, which exploits the tendency of some cancer-related genes to undergo the attachment of a chemical group, by a process known as methylation, has been published.
“Diagnosis is a huge bottleneck to starting treatment, especially in developing countries that have a small number of pathologists available to review breast cancer biopsies who serve a huge population,” says study leader Saraswati Sukumar, Ph.D., professor of oncology and pathology at the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center.  “That means a test like ours could be especially useful in places with fewer resources and where mortality rates from breast cancer are much higher compared to the developed world.”
Breast cancer cases are rising around the world, Sukumar notes. Globally, breast cancer incidence is steadily increasing. In 1980, GLOBOCAN reported 641,000 new cases of breast cancer worldwide. In 2018, the estimated incidence of breast cancer worldwide rose to 2.1 million cases (a 3.2% annual rate of increase) with 626,000 deaths due to this cancer.
The reasons for higher death rates in the developing world include social stigmas that prevents many women from seeking timely treatment and a lack of healthcare resources. However, a major factor is time between biopsies and delivery of a diagnosis, which can be as long as 15 months in places with fewer resources compared to a few days or weeks in the United States.  
Seeking to shrink the time from biopsy to diagnosis, Sukumar and her colleagues in the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine’s departments of pathology, surgery, and radiology, and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and collaborators from Cepheid developed a novel technology platform.  Here, a patient’s biopsy sample is loaded into cartridges and inserted in a machine that tests levels of gene methylation—a chemical addition to genes that results in changes in gene activity. This platform returns methylation marker results within five hours.
These results suggest that the test holds promise as a “first pass” to distinguish between malignant and benign breast tumours, Sukumar says. With the 5-hour-long return on results, low skill required to run the test, and relatively low expense, it could offer hope of speeding diagnosis for thousands of women worldwide.
Sukumar cautions that the team’s molecular test cannot replace expert analysis by a pathologist, whose skill will be necessary to review core biopsies of the breast lesion for a definitive diagnosis and optimal therapy recommendations.
John Hopkins University https://tinyurl.com/yxkg5sjy

Japanese scientists report a new method to construct 3D models from 2D images. The approach, which involves non-rigid registration with a blending of rigid transforms, overcomes several of the limitations in current methods. The researchers validate their method by applying it to the Kyoto Collection of Human Embryos and Fetuses, the largest collection of human embryos in the world, with over 45,000 specimens.
MRI and CT scans are standard techniques for acquiring 3D images of the body. These modalities can trace with unprecedented precision the location of an injury or stroke. They can even reveal the microscopic protein deposits seen in brain pathologies like Alzheimer’s disease. However, for the best resolution, scientists still depend on slices of the specimen, which is why cancer and other biopsies are taken. Once the information desired is acquired, scientists use algorithms that can put together the 2D slices to recreate a simulated 3D image. In this way, they can reconstruct an entire organ or even organism.
Stacking slices together to create a 3D image is akin to putting a cake together after it has been cut. Yes, the general shape is there, but the knife will cause certain slices to break so that the reconstructed cake never looks as beautiful as the original. While this might not upset the party of five-year olds who want to indulge, the party of surgeons looking for the precise location of a tumour are harder to appease.
“The sectioning process stretches, bends and tears the tissue. The staining process varies between samples. And the fixation process causes tissue destruction,” explains Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST), Nara, Japan, Associate Professor Takuya Funatomi, who led the project.
Fundamentally, there are three challenges that emerge with the 3D reconstruction. First is non-rigid deformation, in which the position and orientation of various points in the original specimen have changed. Second is tissue discontinuity, where gaps may appear in the reconstruction if the registration fails. Finally, there is a scale change, where portions of the reconstruction are disproportional to their real size due to non-rigid registration.
For each of these problems, Associate Professor Takuya Funatomi and his research team proposed a solution that when combined resulted in a reconstruction that minimizes all three factors using less computational cost than standard methods.
“First, we represent non-rigid deformation using a small number of control points by blending rigid transforms,” says Funatomi. The small number of control points can be estimated robustly against the staining variation.
“Then we select the target images according to the non-rigid registration results and apply scale adjustment,” he continues.
The new method mainly focuses on a number of serial section images of human embryos from the Kyoto Collection of Human Embryos and Fetuses and could reconstruct 3D embryos with extraordinary success.
Notably, there are no MRI or CT scans of the samples, meaning no 3D models could be used as a reference for the 3D reconstruction. Further, wide variability in tissue damage and staining complicated the reconstruction.
Nara Institute of Science and Technology https://tinyurl.com/y4ealgow

Greiner Bio-One is supporting a Swiss Red Cross (SRK) project to modernize the blood donor service and the provision of safe blood supplies for Syrian refugees and the wider public in Lebanon.
Greiner Bio-One has been a project partner of the Swiss Red Cross since May 2019. Due to its extensive and long-term experience, SRK is in a strong position to provide support to several countries in establishing a professional blood donor service. One of these countries is Lebanon.
In addition to promoting quality assurance in the blood donor service, the goal of the Swiss Red Cross is to increase the stock of blood through regular donations. Because safe blood saves lives!
Giving blood is not (yet) necessarily the norm everywhere
In some regions of the world, people often only donate blood for family members so there is therefore not enough available or it needs to be paid for. There is a need to raise awareness here and encourage people to donate blood for others outside their own families. “If somebody needs my blood, I’m there for them,” says Said Mrad, a voluntary Lebanese blood donor. The 26-year-old is giving blood for the fourth time. Thanks to the work of the SRK in cooperation with the Lebanese Red Cross, he now sees it as completely natural to give his blood for other people.
Blood supplies need to be safe
A professional blood donor service not only needs donors but it also needs suitable products and expert knowledge to ensure high quality standards, maximum safety and wide coverage for this vital service. The SRK’s international experience helps the Lebanese Red Cross a great deal as it establishes this valuable service. Greiner Bio-One is supporting this project through its financial contribution, its products and its expertise. www.gbo.com

Olympus’ Image of the Year Award recognizes the best in life science imaging worldwide. Participants can win a CX43 microscope with a DP27 digital camera, X Line objectives, or an OM-D E-M5 Mark II camera. Those interested in participating can enter until 31 January 2020 by uploading images at www.olympus-lifescience.com/ioty. Winners will be selected by a jury panel and announced in March 2020.
The jury consists of global representatives from both science and the arts, including photo-
grapher Ron Caplain; Geoff Williams, a bioimaging facility manager at Brown University; Urs Ziegler, the head of a microscopy imaging facility at the University of Zurich; Stefan Terjung, the operational manager of an advanced light microscopy facility at EMBL Heidelberg; Hiroaki Misono, a graduate school professor of brain science at Doshisha University; Zhu Xueliang, a professor at the Shanghai Institute of Biochemistry and Cell Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences; Yalin Wang, Director of Biomedical Research Core Facilities at Westlake University, Hangzhou, China; and Wendy Salmon, a light microscopy specialist of a bioimaging facility at MIT.
All entries will be evaluated based on artistic and visual aspects, scientific impact, and microscope proficiency. Regional prizes in Asia, Europe, and the Americas will be awarded in addition to the global prize.
The Image of the Year European Life Science Light Microscopy Award began in 2017 to celebrate both the artistic and scientific value of microscopy images. Now on a global scale, the competition aims to encourage people to look at scientific images in a new way, appreciate their beauty, and share images with others.
Participants may upload up to three microscopy images when submitting the online form. Images, accompanied by a brief explanation that notes the equipment used, can be uploaded until 31 January 2020. The jury will select and notify the winners in March 2020.