Anne Li (class of 2022) has been published in the International Journal of Radiation Oncology with her study End of Treatment Monocyte and Lymphocyte Counts Predict for Survival over Three Years in Patients with Glioblastoma Treated with Conventional Radiation that she conducted as a Junior Neuroscience student at Johns Hopkins University. Anne presented this work at the 66th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Radiation Oncology (ASTRO).
The research examines the changes in leukocytes (White Blood Cells) over the course of a 6 week radiation treatment for patients diagnosed with Glioblastoma, the most commonly diagnosed primary brain cancer. As White Blood Cells are important in the anti-neoplastic immune response, subtypes including lymphocytes and monocytes (a myeloid derived cell) have been identified as promoting tumor suppression and tumor progression in its opposite nature.
Since radiation is cytotoxic and does not discriminate against healthy WBCs; we examined these changes pre and post RT and found that elevated monocyte counts >600 and lower lymphocyte counts <800 were prognostic factors that indicated lower disease survival.
