Abstract

Cancer is the major burden of disease worldwide. Each year, tens of millions of people are diagnosed with cancer around the world, and more than half of the patients eventually die from it. In many countries, cancer ranks the second most common cause of death following cardiovascular diseases. With significant improvement in treatment and prevention of cardiovascular diseases, cancer has or will soon become the number one killer in many parts of the world. The aim of this study was to optimize the means to support and diagnose early people living with solid cancers through blood exploration using flow cytometry. The techniques used included; complete blood count (CBC), flow cytometry and microscopy slides (smear). The data obtained from the microscopic analysis of blood cells searching for alterations after smear colored blade by May Grünwald Giemsa (MGG), revealed changes in size (anisocytosis) and shape (poikilocytosis) of erythrocytes with total absence of neutrophils. The main blood pathologies associated with these types of cancer obtained after CBC were: hypoglobinemia (30.76%), blood-concentration (18.75%) which marked the character of hypochromic blood tissue (true anemia), monocytosis (12.82%) and erythrocytopenia (12.82%). The decrease in the number of granules of polymorphonuclear cells and changes in the shapes of nuclei (lobularity) were observed in most patients, using the flow cytometry technique. Thus, alterations of blood tissue in solid cancers were identified and an algorithm for their exploitation has been developed to contribute to the understanding of natural history of solid cancer.

Key words: Solid cancer, epidemiology, cytological markers, flow cytometry.