Avid Bioservices Inc (CDMO)

[biopharm]

CTC's > back to extracting CTC from the blood... analyze... treat cancer like diabetes....

One last post to feast on before dinner and Peregrine KOL David Carbone has been speaking up lately regarding blood based biomarkers and here again... we have some forward thinking Spaniards.... hold it, I think Spain has the most clinical sites for SunRise Phase III NSCLC ... hmmmm...are MDSC's part of those CTC's they are talking about below ?
Patience and we shall see : )

Evaluation of Circulating Tumor Cells and Related Events as Prognostic Factors and Surrogate Biomarkers in Advanced NSCLC Patients Receiving First-Line Systemic Treatment

Laura Muinelo-Romay, Maria Vieito, Alicia Abalo, Marta Alonso Nocelo, Francisco Barón, Urbano Anido, Elena Brozos, Francisca Vázquez, Santiago Aguín, Miguel Abal, and Rafael López López*

Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS), Trav. Choupana s/n 15706
Santiago de Compostela, Spain;

Abstract

In the present study we investigated the prognostic value of Circulating Tumour Cells (CTC) and their utility for therapy monitoring in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). A total of 43 patients newly diagnosed with NSCLC were prospectively enrolled. Blood samples were obtained before the 1st, 2nd and 5th cycles of chemotherapy and analyzed using CellSearch technology. Both CTC and CTC-related objects (not morphological standard or broken epithelial cells) were counted. At baseline 18 (41.9%) patients were positive for intact CTC count and 10 (23.2%) of them had =5 CTC, while CK positive events were found in 79.1% of patients. The group of patients with CTC =5 at baseline presented worse PFS and OS than those with <5 CTC (p = 0.034 and p = 0.008, respectively). Additionally, high levels of total CK positive events were associated with poor prognosis in the group of patients with <5 CTC. Regarding therapy monitoring, patients presenting increased levels of CTC during the treatment demonstrated lower OS and PFS rates. All these data supported the value of CTC as a prognostic biomarker and as a surrogate indicator of chemotherapy effectiveness in advanced NSCLC patients, with the additional value of analyzing other “objects” such as apoptotic CTC or CK fragments to guide the clinical management of these patients.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3980598/