Data presented at the 28th Annual Meeting and Scientific Sessions of the International Society for Heart and Lung Transplantation (ISHLT) suggest the potential of a significant impact of using biomarkers to reduce the need for biopsies and personalize transplant patient care.
Non-invasive testing using gene-based blood or urine samples called biomarkers could offer transplant patients personalized care and medication and may replace the need for costly, invasive biopsy procedures that can be risky for patients. The meeting will run through Saturday at the Boston Marriott Copley Place and Hynes Convention Center.
Personalized care is an integrative process of tailoring care to an individual patient's characteristics or preferences, based on each individual's unique biology, behavior and environment. At this year's meeting, researchers are presenting data from gene and protein based blood testing that may be helpful for reducing immunosuppression. Related data suggests gene analysis may allow for prediction of future occurrence of cardiac allograft rejection and its diagnosis.
FEATURED DISCUSSION
Today's plenary lectures provide current perspectives on biomarkers in transplantation. In Biomarkers: What Are They" How Might They Aid in Care of Allograft Recipients and Other Patients, Christopher J. O'Donnell, MD, MPH, from NIH National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute/Framingham Heart Study, Framingham, MA, will present data pertaining to personalized care, its benefits and future impact on heart and lung patients.
Following, Dr. Christoph Borchers, Director of the Genome Canada Proteomics Platform at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, will provide a look at the emerging strategies for plasma protein analysis in New Tools, Technologies and Results for Probing Proteomic Biomarkers in Plasma of Transplant Patients.
Finally, Dr. Ralph Weissleder from Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard will discuss Imaging Biomarkers: New Horizons and Opportunities in Transplantation, and will share the latest information on imaging biomarkers and how advanced imaging techniques may soon help in the management of transplant patients. Three related biomarker abstracts are also slated for presentation during the session.