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Breast cancer

CTCs—a predictive approach for targeted cancer therapy

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 11, page 501 (2014)Cite this article

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The genetic and functional characterization of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) isolated from the blood of patients with cancer over the course of therapy, might support the identification of individualized treatment. The isolation of viable CTCs is technically challenging; however, Daniel Haber, Mehmet Toner and colleagues have developed a microfluidic technology, CTC-iChip, which efficiently depletes normal blood cells in the samples allowing the purification of non-manipulated CTCs.

Using CTC-iChip, the investigators have established long-term oligoclonal CTC cultures from the blood of 6 patients with metastatic oestrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer. Haber explains: “culturing CTCs ex vivo allows the purification of large amounts of tumour material (without needing a biopsy) to perform genetic analysis and, at the same time, to test these cell lines for response to drugs targeting relevant pathways.” Of note, genome sequencing of the CTC lines (isolated after several therapies) identified pre-existing mutations in PIK3CA and new mutations—not present at the time of initial diagnosis—in PIK3CA and the ER gene ESR1, among others. “In some cases, the newly acquired mutations are predictive of the sensitivity of the cells to targeted therapies,” says Haber.

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References

  1. Yu, M. et al. Ex vivo culture of circulating breast tumor cells for individualized testing of drug susceptibility. Science 10.1126/science.1253533

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Authors
  1. Alessia Errico
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Errico, A. CTCs—a predictive approach for targeted cancer therapy. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 11, 501 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2014.129

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