EARLY DETECT/CHARACTERIZATION OF TUMOR CELLS IN BLOOD

描述：(逐字改编自调查人员的摘要) 我们已经开发了一种高度敏感的检测方法，用于检测、枚举和 血液中上皮细胞的特征。该测试可以检测到一个这样的细胞 在2×108个白细胞中。细胞可获得存活细胞或固定细胞。方法 允许对细胞的恶性、遗传性进行表征 改变，起源器官和侵袭性。我们已经使用该方法来 对34例乳腺癌、7例前列腺癌患者的血液进行了研究 对照组23例(正常或非肿瘤性疾病)。肿瘤细胞被发现在 几乎所有癌症患者的血液，包括那些有肿瘤的人 临床上局限于原发部位。在数量上没有重叠 对照组血上皮细胞与23例癌症患者中的21例 临床上器官受限的肿瘤。后者的细胞形态为 肿瘤细胞和乳腺癌组织表达粘蛋白-1、细胞角蛋白、8、18、 经常是HER-2和类固醇受体。我们计划优化化验方法 包括确定区分血液和对照的分界值 与癌症患者相比，更多的检测方法来确定乳房起源 肿瘤细胞，用多色FISH(MCF)分析DNA变化， 癌基因突变的存在、细胞学和表面特征 与复制和侵袭性相关的抗原。我们的假设是 这种化验方法将在非常早期的阶段发现癌症，并有助于 预言。因此，1)循环中的癌细胞可以被检测到高风险吗 在检测到原发肿瘤之前的个体？2)这项测试是否可以用于 监测治疗？3)这项测试能预测转移性疾病是否 显影？我们还尝试对肿瘤细胞进行短期培养。 个别患者研究他们对传统和新事物的反应性 治疗剂。

DESCRIPTION: (adapted verbatim from the investigator's abstract) We have developed a highly sensitive test for detecting, enumerating and characterizing epithelial cells in the blood. The test can detect one such cell in 2 x 108 leukocytes. The cells can be obtained viable or fixed. The method allows characterization of the cells for their malignant nature, genetic alterations, organ of origin and aggressiveness. We have used the method to study the blood of 34 patients with breast cancer, 7 with prostate cancer and 23 controls (normal or non-neoplastic disease). Tumor cells were found in the blood of virtually all the cancer patients, including those that had a tumor clinically confined to the primary site. There was no overlap in the number of blood epithelial cells in the controls vs 21 of 23 cancer patients with clinically organ confined tumor. The latter have cells with the morphology of tumor cells and those with breast cancer, express Mucin-1, cytokeratin, 8, 18, and frequently Her-2 and steroid receptors. We plan to optimize the assay including confirming the cut-off value for distinguishing blood from controls vs patients with cancer, more assays to determine the breast origin of the tumor cells, analysis of DNA alterations by multi-color FISH (MCF), the presence of mutations in oncogenes, cytology and characterization of surface antigens associated with replication and aggressiveness. Our hypothesis is that the assay will detect carcinomas at a very early stage and can aid prognostication. Thus, 1) Can circulating cancer cells be detected in high risk individuals before detection of the primary tumor? 2) Can the test be used to monitor therapy? 3) Can the test predict whether metastatic disease will develop? We also attempt to do short-term culture of the tumor cells from individual patients to study their reactivity to conventional and novel therapeutic agents.