Journal of internal medicine
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The rapidly increasing availability of sequence information for tumor patients, combined with expanding treatment options, motivates efforts to monitor the course of disease for individual patients by analyzing patient-specific mutations in liquid biopsies, as highly specific markers of the malignancy. We discuss the suitability of established molecular methods to monitor patients with malignancies, in particular leukemias, comparing these to the recently developed super rolling circle amplification technique for highly sensitive, parallel measurements of mutant sequences using readily available instruments. ⋯ A method with high-enough accuracy to enable monitoring in peripheral blood rather than bone marrow samples would present a great practical advantage, not least from the patient perspective. We describe scenarios in which sufficiently sensitive, inexpensive methods for mutational analysis can provide valuable guidance for the clinician in choosing among therapeutic options and adjusting ongoing treatment and help to promptly identify recurrences of disease in treated patients.
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Editorial Comment
Diet quality and mortality: Epidemiological lessons for prevention.
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Review
Effective prognostic and clinical risk stratification in COVID-19 using multimodality biomarkers.
In acute coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) patients, effective clinical risk stratification has important implications on treatment and therapeutic resource distribution. This article reviews the evidence behind a wide range of biomarkers with prognostic value in COVID-19. Patient characteristics and co-morbidities, such as cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, are associated with increased mortality risk. ⋯ Second, certain under-explored tests such as thoracic impedance assessment and cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging deserve further investigation. Lastly, the prognostic values of most biomarkers in COVID-19 are derived from retrospective analyses. Prospective studies are required to validate these markers for guiding clinical decision-making and to facilitate their translation into clinical management pathways.