Analysis of cytologic reactivity of oncologic patient — modern trend in oncology
Summary. The review summarizes the modern literature data on the current approaches for the assessment of the host reaction to tumor at the level of somatic non-malignized cells. Notwithstanding the various designs of such studies, the general objective consists in the search for the simple non-invasive markers that may be used as the informative predictors of cancer for differential diagnosis and prognosis as well as the development of preventive measures, the assessment of treatment efficacy and the sensitivity of cancer cells to chemo- and radiotherapy. Three major directions in such studies may be delineated. The classical approach allowing for the analysis of cytotoxic effects based on the study of chromosomal aberrations, micronuclei and DNA comets in the samples of buccal epithelium and peripheral blood lymphocytes is still remaining as the golden standard. Since the inflammation is proved to be a key factor determining the outcome of the malignant process, the second direction in studying the cytological reactivity of cancer patients comprises the search for the markers of the systemic inflammatory response based on the indices calculated by the ratios of the peripheral blood cells. Recently, the epigenetic approach as the third research direction comprising this problem has been developed. Such an approach consists in the detection of the methylation markers in DNA of the somatic non-malignant cells, in particular in peripheral blood lymphocytes, as well as the analysis of tumor-associared microRNAs in the patients with malignant tumors of various genesis for their further clinical implementation. The results of the studies alongside all three directions delineated above are promising and offer the hopes for the success in the solution of the topical problems of cancer research in the near future.
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