Lukasz Minarowski

The activity of selected glycosidases in salivary gland tumors.

The monitoring of the patients after salivary gland tumors surgery is an important clinical issue. Still imperfect diagnostic procedures also remain a challenge for searching new sensitive and specific biomarkers of neoplastic processes in salivary glands. The aim of the presented study was an the assessment of the activity of HEX, with its isoforms HEX-A and HEX-B, GLU, GAL, MAN and FUC in salivary gland tumor tissues in comparison to a healthy salivary gland tissues taken during autopsy. A group of 42 patients with benign and malignant salivary gland tumors, aged 25-65 were examined. Fragments of salivary gland tumor tissue, fragments of healthy tissue removed during autopsy, blood serum and saliva were collected from patients with salivary gland tumors and healthy volunteers. In salivary gland tumor tissue the activity of HEX, HEX-A, HEX-B, GAL, FUC was considerably higher than in comparison to healthy salivary gland tissue and ascending trend of activity of GLU, MAN was also noticed. The activity of all lysosomal exoglycosidases in blood serum in patients with salivary gland tumors was considerably higher in comparison to healthy volunteers blood serum. The considerably higher activity of HEX, HEX-A, GLU, GAL, MAN, FUC and descending trend of activity of HEX-B were noticed in saliva of patients with salivary gland tumors in comparison to healthy volunteers. The assessment of HEX in blood serum and saliva of patients with salivary gland tumor can be possibly used in diagnostics and monitoring of salivary glands tumors.

Systematic biobanking, novel imaging techniques, and advanced molecular analysis for precise tumor diagnosis and therapy: The Polish MOBIT project

Personalized and precision medicine is gaining recognition due to the limitations by standard diagnosis and treatment; many areas of medicine, from cancer to psychiatry, are moving towards tailored and individualized treatment for patients based on their clinical characteristics and genetic signatures as well as novel imaging techniques. Advances in whole genome sequencing have led to identification of genes involved in a variety of diseases. Moreover, biomarkers indicating severity of disease or susceptibility to treatment are increasingly being characterized. The continued identification of new genes and biomarkers specific to disease subtypes and individual patients is essential and inevitable for translation into personalized medicine, in estimating both, disease risk and response to therapy. Taking into consideration the mostly unsolved necessity of tailored therapy in oncology the innovative project MOBIT (molecular biomarkers for individualized therapy) was designed. The aims of the project are: (i) establishing integrative management of precise tumor diagnosis and therapy including systematic biobanking, novel imaging techniques, and advanced molecular analysis by collecting comprehensive tumor tissues, liquid biopsies (whole blood, serum, plasma), and urine specimens (supernatant; sediment) as well as (ii) developing personalized lung cancer diagnostics based on tumor heterogeneity and integrated genomics, transcriptomics, metabolomics, and radiomics PET/MRI analysis. It will consist of 5 work packages. In this paper the rationale of the Polish MOBIT project as well as its design is presented. (iii) The project is to draw interest in and to invite national and international, private and public, preclinical and clinical initiatives to establish individualized and precise procedures for integrating novel targeted therapies and advanced imaging techniques.