Mobile applications are more and more often integrated into standard cancer care. Nevertheless, knowledge about the use of mobile applications for monitoring patients during treatment for early breast cancer is still limited. A scoping review of literature was performed based on Joanna Briggs Institute guidelines to identify articles providing information on development and use of mobile applications for adult patients undergoing chemotherapy for early breast cancer. Five randomized controlled trials (RCT), nonrandomized controlled prospective cohort study, secondary data analysis of RCT, mixed method study and two protocol manuscripts were reviewed. Four out of six mobile applications recognized in this review were demonstrated to have interventional value for management of chemotherapy-related side effects. Clinical outcomes achieved among mobile apps users included improved quality of life, lower symptom prevalence and symptom burden. Mobile applications are feasible and have ability to improve symptom monitoring during cancer treatment. However, more research is needed to validate these resources, ensuring effectiveness and safety for their users.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating cancer-associated fibroblasts (cCAFs) have been individually considered strong indicators of cancer progression. However, technical limitations have prevented their simultaneous analysis in the context of CTC phenotypes different from epithelial. This study aimed to analyze CTCs and cCAFs simultaneously in the peripheral blood of 210 breast cancer patients using DAPI/pan-keratin (K)/vimentin (V)/alpha-SMA/CD29/CD45/CD31 immunofluorescent staining and novel technology—imaging flow cytometry (imFC). Single and clustered CTCs of different sizes and phenotypes (i.e., epithelial phenotype K+/V− and epithelial–mesenchymal transition (EMT)-related CTCs, such as K+/V+, K−/V+, and K−/V−) were detected in 27.6% of the samples and correlated with metastases. EMT-related CTCs interacted more frequently with normal cells and tended to occur in patients with tumors progressing during therapy, while cCAFs coincided with CTCs (mainly K+/V− and K−/V−) in seven (3.3%) patients and seemed to correlate with the presence of metastases, particularly visceral ones. This study emphasizes the advantages of imFC in the field of liquid biopsy and highlights the importance of multimarker-based analysis of different subpopulations and phenotypes of cancer progression-related cells, i.e., CTCs and cCAFs. The co-detection of CTCs and cCAFs might improve the identification of patients at higher risk of progression and their monitoring during therapy.

Background: The population of individuals affected by breast cancer is growing, and with advances in cancer treatment implemented into usual care, there is an urgent need to improve the recognition, monitoring and treatment of therapy-induced adverse effects. This study aims to explore the use of an in-app electronic questionnaire to assess and monitor chemotherapy-related symptoms in early breast cancer patients treated with perioperative chemotherapy. Method: Between December 2019 and June 2021, 72 female study participants used the mobile app Centrum Chorób Piersi UCK and completed an in-app questionnaire about the 14 most common chemotherapy-related symptoms. Replies including symptoms with a critical value triggered automatic email alerts to the nursing team. Results: Acceptance of the study was higher among younger women and patients originating from rural areas, while possible digital exclusion among patients >60 years was observed during the enrolment process. A total of 55 participants completed the electronic questionnaire at least once and generated 553 responses with 1808 specific problems reported. Fatigue (n = 428) was the most common problem, and fever (n = 5) the least reported problem. A total of 21 participants triggered alerts with responses containing symptoms with critical value assessment (n = 89). Significant negative correlation was observed between the number of responses and time from the first chemotherapy administration; however, the number of responses was not determined by any sociodemographic or medical factors. Significant positive correlations were identified between the number of communicated problems and participants’ age. The usage of our electronic symptom assessment questionnaire decreased substantially after the period of active encouragement during the study enrolment. Conclusions: Not all societies are ready for innovative eHealth solutions. Patients’ age should be carefully considered when app-based interventions are introduced to usual cancer care. Additional support is suggested for older patients to improve their awareness and participation in eHealth interventions. More research involving older participants is needed to explore and address their particular needs and perspectives on eHealth solutions.

Neutrophils are emerging as key regulators of tumor biology, influencing cancer progression, immune evasion, and therapeutic response. However, their transcriptomic characterization remains challenging due to low RNA content, limiting confident discrimination from other leukocyte populations at the single-cell level. To address this, we developed a robust analytical framework for single-cell RNA sequencing data, calculating a neutrophil score for each cell based on two curated neutrophil marker gene panels and excluding cells expressing non-neutrophil marker genes. White blood cells were isolated from liquid biopsies of six triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) patients and six non-malignant donors, sequenced, and analyzed to profile 84 neutrophils isolated from TNBC patients and 128 neutrophils isolated from control donors. TNBC neutrophils displayed significant upregulation of migration-associated genes (−log₁₀ adjusted p ≈ 3) and respiratory complex genes (p < 1 × 10⁻⁹) compared with controls. These findings demonstrate significant transcriptomic differences between the TNBC and control neutrophils, revealing a part of the influence of the TNBC tumor on circulating immune cells. Moreover, this work provides a validated framework for precise neutrophil identification and functional characterization in single-cell studies and lays the foundation for dissecting their mechanistic roles in cancer progression.