Genetic Links Between Biliary Tract Inflammation and Cancer Uncovered

Did you know that inflammation in your bile ducts can sometimes look a lot like cancer? This can make it tough for doctors to manage the real deal—biliary tract cancer (BTC). But what if we told you that there's a genetic connection between these two? Scientists have been trying to figure out the molecular details, and they've made some interesting finds. They took a look at cell-free DNA in the plasma of 45 people with BTC and 31 with biliary tract inflammatory lesions (BTI). They focused on 93 genes linked to cancer. Guess what? About 41% of these genes had similar mutations in both groups. The more mutations found in the cell-free DNA, the higher the levels of certain cancer markers, like CA19-9 and CEA.Two genes, TP53 and LRP1B, showed the biggest differences in mutation rates between BTC and BTI. This suggests that as inflammation gets worse, certain genetic changes might lead to cancer. Even cooler, they created a tool called allele fraction variance (AFV) using this cell-free DNA. It can help predict how well a BTC patient will do after surgery. The sooner they use this tool, the better the prediction. So, it looks like cell-free DNA in plasma might hold a key to understanding how biliary tract inflammation can turn into cancer.