Study Posits New Strategy for Early Detection of Biliary Tract Cancer

Researchers in Denmark have determined that changes in the immune system in response to biliary tract cancer can help diagnose the particularly deadly cancer earlier.

Biliary tract cancer arises in the mucosa of the bile duct. It is especially difficult to diagnose, with most cases identified only after the cancer has spread. Only one in three patients are candidates for surgery.

Work out of University of Copenhagen has found that the rare cancer causes immune cells to change behavior, resulting in a unique expression of microRNA molecules in the patient’s blood. “These changes enable us to diagnose biliary tract cancer much earlier than with existing tests,” says Associate Professor Jesper Bøje Andersen, head of the group of researchers from the Biotech Research & Innovation Centre at the University.

The team examined more than 200 blood samples from people with and without biliary tract cancer. They have analyzed the cells in the blood, a large part of which were immune cells. More specifically, they have conducted microRNA analyses. MicroRNA is a group of genes, which play a key part in the complex development of the human genome.

“By comparing the different levels of microRNA in the blood, we identified four microRNAs, and this enabled us to distinguish patients with biliary tract cancer from healthy participants. Other types of blood analyses were unable to do that. All in all, the data indicates that microRNAs change in patients with biliary tract cancer,” says Jesper Bøje Andersen.

The new study is not the first to research cancer and the immune system, but it is the first to do so in relation to biliary tract cancer.

“The research method is also new. We look at the blood as a whole and thus at all the cells, which largely consist of immune cells. A lot of research seeks to identify methods for early detection of cancer. But it is like looking for a needle in a haystack, as the goal is to find the tumors while they are still very small. The idea behind this approach is to look not for the needle, but for small changes in the haystack,” says Dan Høgdall, coauthor and a doctor at the Department of Oncology at Herlev and Gentofte Hospital.