Circulating Tumor Cells Dynamics in Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma Correlate With Disease Status

Prostate cancer (PC) is the second most common cancer in men and is the fifth leading cause of cancer-related deaths worldwide. Additionally, there is concern for overdiagnosis and overtreatment of PC. Thus, selection of an appropriate candidate for active surveillance as well as more accurate and less invasive tools for monitoring advanced PC is required. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have emerged as a liquid biopsy tool; there have been several reports on its role, technologies, and applications to various cancers, including PC. Liquid biopsy using CTCs has been gaining attention as a minimal invasive tool for investigation of biomarkers and for prognosis and assessment of response to therapies in patients with PC. Because of the lower invasiveness of liquid biopsy using CTCs, it can be performed more frequently; accordingly, personalized disease status can be successively determined at serial time points. CTC analysis enables detection of genomic alterations, which is drug-targetable, and it is a potential tool for monitoring response to therapeutic agents in patients with PC. This review focuses on the characteristics, technologies for analysis, and advantages and disadvantages of CTCs as a liquid biopsy tool and their application in PC. Finally, we propose future directions of CTCs.

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Circulating tumor cells as a biomarker of response to treatment in patient derived xenograft mouse models of pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Journal of the American College of Surgeons ◽

10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2013.07.054 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 217 (3) ◽

pp. S30 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert J. Torphy ◽

Christopher J. Tignanelli ◽

Richard A. Moffitt ◽

Steven A. Soper ◽

Jen Jen Yeh

Keyword(s):

Tumor Cells ◽

Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma ◽

Circulating Tumor Cells ◽

Mouse Models ◽

Response To Treatment ◽

Patient Derived Xenograft

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Ascorbate Decreases Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in Mice with Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma (PDAC)

Free Radical Biology and Medicine ◽

10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2017.10.120 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 112 ◽

pp. 84

Author(s):

Matthew S. Alexander ◽

Brianne R. O' Leary ◽

Justin G. Wilkes ◽

Juan Du ◽

Joseph J. Cullen

Keyword(s):

Tumor Cells ◽

Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma ◽

Circulating Tumor Cells

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Circulating Tumor Cells: A Useful Predictor of Treatment Efficacy in Metastatic Breast Cancer

Journal of Clinical Oncology ◽

10.1200/jco.2008.20.6664 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 27 (31) ◽

pp. 5153-5159 ◽

Cited By ~ 203

Author(s):

Minetta C. Liu ◽

Peter G. Shields ◽

Robert D. Warren ◽

Philip Cohen ◽

Mary Wilkinson ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Breast Cancer ◽

Metastatic Breast Cancer ◽

Disease Progression ◽

Endocrine Therapy ◽

Tumor Cells ◽

Circulating Tumor Cells ◽

Metastatic Breast ◽

Progression Free Survival ◽

Disease Status ◽

Radiographic Disease

PurposeFive or more circulating tumor cells (CTCs) per 7.5 mL of blood predicts for poorer progression-free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We conducted a prospective study to demonstrate that CTC results correlate strongly with radiographic disease progression at the time of and in advance of imaging.Patients and MethodsSerial CTC levels were obtained in patients starting a new treatment regimen for progressive, radiographically measurable MBC. Peripheral blood was collected for CTC enumeration at baseline and at 3- to 4-week intervals. Clinical outcomes were based on radiographic studies performed in 9- to 12-week intervals.ResultsSixty-eight patients were evaluable for the CTC-imaging correlations, and 74 patients were evaluable for the PFS analysis. Median follow-up was 13.3 months. A statistically significant correlation was demonstrated between CTC levels and radiographic disease progression in patients receiving chemotherapy or endocrine therapy. This correlation applied to CTC results obtained at the time of imaging (odds ratio [OR], 6.3), 3 to 5 weeks before imaging (OR, 3.1), and 7 to 9 weeks before imaging (OR, 4.9). Results from analyses stratified by type of therapy remained statistically significant. Shorter PFS was observed for patients with five or more CTCs at 3 to 5 weeks and at 7 to 9 weeks after the start of treatment.ConclusionWe provide, to our knowledge, the first evidence of a strong correlation between CTC results and radiographic disease progression in patients receiving chemotherapy or endocrine therapy for MBC. These findings support the role of CTC enumeration as an adjunct to standard methods of monitoring disease status in MBC.

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