•ViBiBa is an open-source sample banking tool.•ViBiBa was purpose built for liquid biopsy specimen.•ViBiBa allows for decentralized storage while promoting collaboration.•ViBiBa's plugin support ...requires no change in existing data structures.•ViBiBa empowers translational research projects and cohort formation.
Liquid Biopsy (LB) in the form of e.g., circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is a promising non-invasive approach to support current therapeutic cancer management. However, the proof of clinical utility of CTCs in informing therapeutic decision-making for e.g., breast cancer in clinical trials and associated translational research projects is facing the issues of low CTC positivity rates and low CTC numbers – even in the metastasized situation. To compensate for this dilemma, clinical CTC trials are designed as large multicenter endeavors with decentralized sample collection, processing and storage of products, making data management highly important to enable high-quality translational CTC research.
In the DETECT clinical CTC trials we aimed at developing a custom-made, browser-based virtual database to harmonize and organize both decentralized processing and storage of LB specimens and to enable the collection of clinically meaningful LB sample.
ViBiBa processes data from various sources, harmonizes the data and creates an easily searchable multilayered database.
An open-source virtual bio-banking web-application termed ViBiBa was created, which automatically processes data from multiple non-standardized sources. These data are automatically checked and merged into one centralized databank and are providing the opportunity to extract clinically relevant patient cohorts and CTC sample collections.
ViBiBa, which is a highly flexible tool that allows for decentralized sample storage of liquid biopsy specimens, facilitates a solution which promotes collaboration in a user-friendly, federalist and highly structured way. The source code is available under the MIT license from https://vibiba.com or https://github.com/asperciesl/ViBiBa
Objective
In this study, we investigated to which extent patients feel well informed about their disease and treatment, which areas they wish more or less information and which variables are ...associated with a need for information about the disease, medical tests and treatment.
Methods
In a German multi-centre prospective study, we enrolled 759 female breast cancer patients at the time of cancer diagnosis (baseline). Data on information were captured at 5 years after diagnosis with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Information Module (EORTC QLQ-INFO24). Good information predictors were analysed using linear regression models.
Results
There were 456 patients who participated at the 5-year follow-up. They reported to feel well informed about medical tests (mean score 78.5) and the disease itself (69.3) but relatively poorly about other services (44.3) and about different places of care (31.3). The survivors expressed a need for more information concerning: side effects and long-term consequences of therapy, more information in general, information about aftercare, prognosis, complementary medicine, disease and therapy. Patients with higher incomes were better informed about medical tests (β 0.26,
p
0.04) and worse informed with increasing levels of fear of treatment (β − 0.11,
p
0.02). Information about treatment was reported to be worse by survivors > 70 years old (β -0.34,
p
0.03) and by immigrants (β -0.11,
p
0.02). Survivors who had received additional written information felt better informed about disease, medical tests, treatment and other services (β 0.19/0.19/0.20/0.25; each
p
< 0.01).
Conclusion
Health care providers have to reconsider how and what kind of information they provide. Providing written information, in addition to oral information, may improve meeting those information needs.
Background. Evidence is accumulating that circulating tumor cells (CTC) out of peripheral blood can serve as prognostic marker not only in metastatic but also in early breast cancer (BC). Various ...methods are available to detect CTC. Comparisons between the different techniques, however, are rare. Material and Methods. We evaluate two different methods for CTC enrichment and detection in primary BC patients: the FDA-approved CellSearch System (CSS; Veridex, Warren, USA) and a manual immunocytochemistry (MICC). The cut-off value for positivity was ≥1 CTC. Results. The two different nonoverlapping patient cohorts evaluated with one or the other method were well balanced regarding common clinical parameters. Before adjuvant CHT 21.1% (416 out of 1972) and 20.6% (247 out of 1198) of the patients were CTC-positive, while after CHT 22.5% (359 out of 1598) and 16.6% (177 out of 1066) of the patients were CTC-positive using CSS or MICC, respectively. CTC positivity rate before CHT was thus similar and not significantly different ( P = 0.749 ), while CTC positivity rate immediately after CHT was significantly lower using MICC compared to CSS ( P < 0.001 ). Conclusion. Using CSS or MICC for CTC detection, we found comparable prevalence of CTC before but not after adjuvant CHT.
Zusammenfassung
Im Rahmen der üblichen Schwangerschaftsvorsorge erfolgt meist im ersten Trimenon eine gynäkologische Untersuchung mit Inspektion der Zervix und Entnahme eines zytologischen Abstrichs. ...Hierbei zeigt sich bei bis zu 7 % der schwangeren Frauen ein auffälliger zytologischer Befund. Bei 0,05 % der Schwangeren wird zudem die Diagnose eines Zervixkarzinoms gestellt, das nach dem Mammakarzinom die häufigste Neoplasie in der Schwangerschaft ist. Die weitere Abklärung und Therapie präinvasiver und invasiver Läsionen der Zervix ist in der Schwangerschaft meist erschwert, sodass sich die betroffene Frau häufig in einem – oft als extrem belastend wahrgenommenen – Konflikt zwischen der eigenen Gesundheit und dem Wohlergehen des Kindes befindet. Aus Ermangelung prospektiver Studien beruhen viele Empfehlungen auf retrospektiven Daten. Aufgrund der besonderen Situation in graviditate muss die Therapie somit häufig individuell an die Patientin und ihre Bedürfnisse angepasst werden. Daher soll im Beitrag eine Übersicht gegeben werden über die aktuellen Empfehlungen zu Diagnostik und Therapie der dysplastischen Veränderungen und Neoplasien der Zervix während der Schwangerschaft.
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