Classification of cancer stage using the immune system.

In cancer research, as Jarnicki et al. (2006) and Benzoni et al. (2007) have shown, surgery continues to be the main treatment option though irradiation and chemotherapy have become increasingly important and may, in certain cases, improve the cure rate produced by surgery. The need for accurate staging, however, prior to any treatment planning has become increasingly important in a wide variety of malignancies (Vlastos and Verkooijen 2007; Warburton et al. 2007). The detection of widespread metastatic disease in patients and the need for accurate staging before therapy has been long recognized (Skeel 1992), and there is a strong case for restaging cancer after a number of cycles of chemotherapy to determine if continued chemotherapy is required. Staging during an operative procedure is also vitally important to spare the patient the possible morbidity and mortality associated with hazardous procedures. No single staging system is universally employed for all cancers but one of the most commonly used is the pTNM classification system, devised by the American Joint Committee on Cancer et al. (1992), and based on the examination of a surgically resected specimen. This classification takes into consideration the size of the primary tumour (T), the presence and extent of regional node metastases (N), and the presence of distant metastases (M). However it is an invasive method of classification as it is based on the examination of a surgically resected specimen. Many researchers have found that tumor establishment and progression are generally allowed through a malfunction of the immune response (Jarnicki et al. 2006; Berghella et al. 2006; Contasta et al. 2006; Pellegrini et al. 2006). Hence, it is our opinion that a noninvasive method of identifying disease stage could lie with the study of immunological blood parameters.