Etiology of the Platelet-Cancer Metastatic Pathway - A Study of Inflammatory Markers, Platelet Characteristics and Metastatic Surrogates in Cancer Patients and Controls

Hypotheses for proposed study

Platelet reactivity as measured by percentage aggregation in response to agonists such as
ADP is increased in patients with metastatic cancer compared to age sex and ethnicity
matched controls.

Platelet activation as measured by release of cytokines and vasoactive substances such as
VEGF, TGF-beta, and PDGF is increased in patients with metastatic cancer compared to age sex
and ethnicity matched controls.

Study Design:

Single center matched case control design; matching variables are age, sex and ethnicity

Inclusion Criteria

Cases:

25 adult patients (>18 years old) with any form of metastatic or advanced stage (TNM stage
III or equivalent) solid adenocarcinoma including breast, colon, and lung cancer will be
eligible for inclusion in this study with no restrictions related to previous chemotherapy,
radiotherapy, biological therapy or surgical management at the time of enrollment or in the
past., although we will prefer to recruit them prior to initiating chemotherapy.

Controls:

25 patients will be selected based on age (+/- 5 years), sex and ethnicity matches from the
outpatient medicine Clinic at Sinai hospital, as well as the Sinai community care clinic.

Exclusion Criteria:

Thrombocytopenia, defined as a platelet count of <100,000 at the time of recruitment of in
the last available laboratory data

History of known bleeding disorder or known platelet dysfunction

Patients on antiplatelet treatment or anticoagulant therapies at the time of enrollment or
10 days prior to testing

CKD stage IV or greater

Inclusion Criteria:

Cases:

25 adult patients (>18 years old) with any form of metastatic or advanced stage (TNM stage
III or equivalent) solid adenocarcinoma including breast, colon, and lung cancer will be
eligible for inclusion in this study with no restrictions related to previous
chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biological therapy or surgical management at the time of
enrollment or in the past., although we will prefer to recruit them prior to initiating
chemotherapy.

Controls:

25 patients will be selected based on age (+/- 5 years), sex and ethnicity matches from
the outpatient medicine Clinic at Sinai hospital, as well as the Sinai community care
clinic.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Thrombocytopenia, defined as a platelet count of <100,000 at the time of

- recruitment of in the last available laboratory data

- History of known bleeding disorder or known platelet dysfunction

- Patients on antiplatelet treatment or anticoagulant therapies at the time of
enrollment or 10 days prior to testing

- CKD stage IV or greater