A novel biomarker of infection in neutropenic cancer patients

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant Early diagnosis of an infection in neutropenic cancer patients is critical for timely treatment But the diagnosis of an infection in these patients especially at an early stage can be very challenging Therefore there is a great need for sensitive biomarkers that can rapidly predict an infection and provide possible outcomes We have already reported that soluble decoy receptor DcR has the potential to be a clinically relevant biomarker of sepsis To further investigate its value in predicting infections and sepsis in neutopenic cancer patients we propose to measure DcR levels in a large number of archived sera collected from neutropenic cancer patients with and without an infection Data will be analyzed to demonstrate both the diagnostic and the prognostic value of serum DcR in neutropenic infection sepsis Also DcR values will be compared with those of PCT procalcitonin a clinically available biomarker of sepsis The positive outcome of this study wil provide a direct justification for further developing our proprietary DcR immunoassay for future clinical use PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE Cancer patients undergone cancer therapy such as chemotherapy radiation therapy and bone marrow transplant are highly susceptible to infection because their immune system has been severely weakened in its ability to fight off opportunistic pathogens Serious complications of an infection are the leading cause of death among these patients Early diagnosis of an infection is critical for timely lifesaving treatment But the diagnosis of an infection in these patients can be challenging Therefore we propose to invent a novel biological marker that is highly superior to predict infection and to provide possible outcomes If such a biomarker becomes available it will improve success of therapy and quality of patientsandapos life