{
  "abstract": "Platelet RNA profiling is a promising liquid biopsy approach, offering minimally invasive insights into systemic diseases, such as cancer. Yet, the effect of leukocyte-associated RNA retention on platelet transcriptomic signatures remains unclear. This study provides the first comprehensive evaluation of how leukocyte-associated RNA retention influences platelet RNA sequencing and machine learning (ML)-based cancer detection. Using the largest publicly available platelet transcriptomic dataset (2351 human RNA samples) and single-cell/single-platelet RNA sequencing from 29 donors, we quantified leukocyte-associated RNA retention in matched sample groups (low vs. high retention) via a novel 132-gene leukocyte marker panel. Diagnostic implications were assessed using 10 ML algorithms for binary classification (cancer vs. healthy), examining the contribution of leukocyte-derived transcripts. Interestingly, models trained on high-retention samples often showed slightly improved performance, suggesting complementary diagnostic value from leukocyte signals. Importantly, post hoc correction using remove unwanted variation (RUV) and linear modeling effectively mitigated retention effects. However, adding the leukocyte-associated RNA retention score to the full-cohort classifier changed cancer-detection AUC only minimally (0.9247 to 0.9249). Thus, whether this signal should be corrected, recalibrated, or reported should depend on the study question rather than assuming routine removal.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [
    "Laboratory of Translational Oncology, Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of the University of Gdansk and the Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Centre of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Department of Software Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland.",
    "Department of Algorithms and Systems Modelling, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland.",
    "Laboratory of Single Cell Analyses, Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, Poznań, Poland.",
    "Department of Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland.",
    "Department of Quality in Healthcare, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Board of Directors, University Clinical Center, Medical University of Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Department of Oncologic, General and Transplant Surgery, University Clinical Centre, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Gynecological Oncology and Endocrinological Gynecology, University Clinical Center, Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Faculty of Medicine, Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland.",
    "Molecular Medicine Program, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.",
    "George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Department of Internal Medicine and the Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC), Salt Lake City, UT, USA.",
    "Department of Pathology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.",
    "Division of General Internal Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.",
    "Department of Neurosurgery, Amsterdam UMC Location Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.",
    "Cancer Center Amsterdam and Brain Tumor Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.",
    "Cancer Center Amsterdam, Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands.",
    "Amsterdam Public Health, Amsterdam UMC, Vrije Universiteit, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.",
    "Translational AI in Laboratory Medicine, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands."
  ],
  "article_type": "research article",
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 13,
  "authors": [
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        2
      ],
      "name": "Michał Sieczczyński"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1,
        3
      ],
      "name": "Krzysztof Pastuszak",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-5562-0114"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Anna Samelak-Czajka"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        5
      ],
      "name": "Zuzanna Cemka"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        4
      ],
      "name": "Paulina Jackowiak"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        6,
        7,
        8
      ],
      "name": "Tomasz Stefaniak"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        9
      ],
      "name": "Sylwia Łapińska-Szumczyk"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        10
      ],
      "name": "Jacek Jassem"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0
      ],
      "name": "Anna J Żaczek"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        11,
        12,
        13,
        14
      ],
      "name": "Matthew T Rondina"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        15,
        16,
        17,
        18
      ],
      "name": "Myron G Best"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        17,
        18,
        19
      ],
      "name": "Sjors G J G In 't Veld"
    },
    {
      "affs": [
        0,
        1
      ],
      "name": "Anna Supernat",
      "orcid": "0000-0002-3113-0540"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/02426pf87egpk.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1002/1878-0261.70353",
  "fulltext_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13722837",
  "id": "02426pf87egpk",
  "issns": [
    "1574-7891",
    "1878-0261"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42963897",
  "language": "eng",
  "licence": "CC-BY",
  "licence_label": "CC BY",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "heading",
      "Research Article"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1306|Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7225018005",
  "pdf_url": "https://europepmc.org/articles/PMC13722837?pdf=render",
  "pmcid": "PMC13722837",
  "pmid": "42963897",
  "published": "2026-10-30",
  "publisher": "Wiley",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/02426pf87egpk.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-02T03:21:21Z",
      "native_id": "MED:42963897",
      "source": "europepmc",
      "url": "https://europepmc.org/article/MED/42963897"
    },
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T12:21:35Z",
      "native_id": "PMC13722837",
      "source": "pmc",
      "url": "https://doi.org/10.1002/1878-0261.70353"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "medicine",
      "origin": "openalex:1306|Cancer Genomics and Diagnostics",
      "subfield": "oncology"
    }
  ],
  "title": "The impact of leukocyte-associated RNA retention on platelet RNA-based cancer detection.",
  "title_text": "The impact of leukocyte-associated RNA retention on platelet RNA-based cancer detection.",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T12:21:35Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/02426pf87egpk",
  "venue": "Molecular oncology",
  "versions": []
}