The End of the Beginning: Circulating Tumor Cells As a Biomarker in Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer
Menée à partir d'échantillons sanguins prélevés sur 238 patients atteints d'un cancer métastatique de la prostate résistant à la castration et inclus dans un essai de phase III évaluant le docétaxel plus la prednisone avec ou sans atrasentan, cette étude met en évidence une association entre le nombre de cellules tumorales circulantes et la survie globale des patients
Although circulating tumor cells (CTCs) were first observed from patients with metastatic malignancies more than 100 years ago, only recently has the clinical and research potential of CTCs become widely recognized. Because CTCs are thought to represent cells that are shed by primary or metastatic tumors, significant interest has focused on examining CTCs as prognostic or predictive biomarkers in several malignancies, including breast and prostate cancer. One could hypothesize that the number of CTCs could be prognostically important by potentially estimating the total-body burden of disease and/or a tumor’s invasiveness. Alternatively, changes in CTC counts might indicate sensitivity or resistance to an anticancer therapy. CTCs could also represent research tools to personalize treatment by serving as a so-called liquid biopsy of an individual’s disease. Quantitation and characterization of CTCs may therefore represent a means to directly inform clinical care but also serve as an investigational platform to elucidate basic mechanisms of tumor biology...
Journal of Clinical Oncology , éditorial en libre accès, 2014