NON-INVASIVE EVALUATION OF COLORECTAL CANCER

Abstract

IN MOST CANCER PATIENTS, INDIVIDUAL CLINICAL OUTCOME REMAIN DIFFICULT TO PREDICT. GENETIC ALTERATIONS IN CANCERS CAN SERVE AS USEFUL BIOMARKERS IN EVALUATING DIAGNOSIS, PROGNOSIS AND THERAPEUTICS. GENOTYPING TUMOUR BIOPSIES HAS BECOME A ROUTINE PRACTICE IN CLINICAL ONCOLOGY; HOWEVER, IT CAN ONLY PROVIDE A SPATIALLY AND TEMPORALLY LIMITED SNAPSHOT OF THE TUMOUR ACHIEVED THROUGH AN INVASIVE PROCEDURE AT A SINGLE TIMEPOINT. WE PROPOSED THAT CIRCULATING TUMOR CELLS (CTCS) OBTAINED FROM BLOOD OF COLORECTAL CANCER (CRC) PATIENTS COULD ALLOW INSIGHTS ON DISEASE ACTIVITY ACHIEVED THROUGH NON-INVASIVE TESTING. USING OUR PROPRIETARY CTC TECHNOLOGY, WE COULD DETECT AND ENUMERATE CTCS AS A MEASURE OF DISEASE ACTIVITY. ALSO, OUR DOWNSTREAM MOLECULAR ANALYSIS SHOWS A GOOD CONCORDANCE IN THE GENETIC PROFILE OF PRIMARY TUMOR AND CTCS. WE DEMONSTRATE THAT CTCS SERVE AS AN IMPORTANT MEAN FOR EVALUATING MICRO-METASTATIC DISEASE, REPRESENTING AN ACCESSIBLE SOURCE OF LIQUID BIOPSY THAT CAN YIELD VALUABLE I