Molecular analysis of circulating tumor cells identifies distinct copy-number profiles in patients with chemosensitive and chemorefractory small-cell lung cancer
A partir de l'analyse de cellules tumorales circulantes extraites d'un prélèvement sanguin sur 13 patients atteints d'un cancer du poumon à petites cellules, puis menée sur 24 patients complémentaires, cette étude identifie des profils d'anomalies du nombre de copies de gènes suggérant que la résistance à la chimiothérapie n'a pas les mêmes bases génétiques au début et à la fin du traitement
In most patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC)—a metastatic, aggressive disease—the condition is initially chemosensitive but then relapses with acquired chemoresistance. In a minority of patients, however, relapse occurs within 3 months of initial treatment; in these cases, disease is defined as chemorefractory. The molecular mechanisms that differentiate chemosensitive from chemorefractory disease are currently unknown. To identify genetic features that distinguish chemosensitive from chemorefractory disease, we examined copy-number aberrations (CNAs) in circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from pretreatment SCLC blood samples. After analysis of 88 CTCs isolated from 13 patients (training set), we generated a CNA-based classifier that we validated in 18 additional patients (testing set, 112 CTC samples) and in six SCLC patient-derived CTC explant tumors1. The classifier correctly assigned 83.3% of the cases as chemorefractory or chemosensitive. Furthermore, a significant difference was observed in progression-free survival (PFS) (Kaplan–Meier P value = 0.0166) between patients designated as chemorefractory or chemosensitive by using the baseline CNA classifier. Notably, CTC CNA profiles obtained at relapse from five patients with initially chemosensitive disease did not switch to a chemorefractory CNA profile, which suggests that the genetic basis for initial chemoresistance differs from that underlying acquired chemoresistance.