As a "liquid biopsy", CTC detection is a less invasive way to evaluate the prognosis and response to chemotherapy of CRC patients than a biopsy of the primary tumor.
In six out of seven patients with HER2-negative primary cancers and HER2-amplified CTCs, the metastatic biopsy tissue was HER2 negative, matching the primary cancer rather than the CTCs.
Such restrictions limit the translation of circulating tumor cell (CTC -based liquid biopsy assays that provide aCTC -basedliquidr data in guiding clinical decisions.
Her lab focuses on technology development and applications related to liquid biopsy (CTCs, ctDNA, extracellular vesicles), droplet-based microfluidic platforms, and preclinical models for testing new cancer therapies.
CTC-based liquid biopsy technologies have now expanded into a wide spectrum of applications in precision oncology, including predictive biomarker discovery, understanding mechanisms of drug resistance and metastasis, and personalized testing of drug efficacy1,2,3.
Often referred to as a "liquid biopsy," CTCs and ctDNA are expected to provide real-time monitoring of tumor evolution and therapeutic efficacy, with the potential for improved cancer diagnosis and treatment.
We next examined the concordance of PD-L1 staining between CTCs and tumor biopsy sections, as PD-L1 positivity in these sections has been shown to be a predictor for outcome in lung cancer and the PD-1 inhibitor pembrolizumab requires a patients' tumor biopsy to be positive for PD-L1 prior to administration (as determined by an FDA-approved companion diagnostic).
With their role as a "tumor liquid biopsy", CTCs provide convenient access to all disease sites, including that of the primary tumor and the site of fatal metastases.
Stoecklein, N. H., Fischer, J. C., Niederacher, D. & Terstappen, L. W. M. M. Challenges for CTC-based liquid biopsies: low CTC frequency and diagnostic leukapheresis as a potential solution.
Beyond the well-established role of CTCs as a fluid biopsy, however, the field of targeting CTCs for the prevention or reduction of metastases has just emerged.
Monitoring of immune responses during immune-checkpoint or vaccination therapies will expand the importance of CTCs beyond the 'liquid biopsy', and will certainly strengthen the translational significance of CTC research in the upcoming era of cancer immunotherapy.
