Active clinical trials for "Neoplastic Cells, Circulating"

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have the potential to provide a surrogate for'real-time biopsy' of tumor biological activity. Enumeration and molecular characterization of CTCs in breast cancer could play an important role in diagnosis, predicting the risk for tumor recurrence, and providing novel target therapy biomarkers. In view of these facts, the investigators wanted to demonstrate the value of multiparameter flow cytometry in detecting human tumor cells of breast cancer in normal peripheral blood after cryosurgery with or without dendritic cell(DC)-cytokine-induced killers(CIK) treatment, and the investigators also compared the specificity with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have the potential to provide a surrogate for'real-time biopsy' of tumor biological activity. Enumeration and molecular characterization of CTCs in colorectal cancer could play an important role in diagnosis, predicting the risk for tumor recurrence, and providing novel target therapy biomarkers. In view of these facts, the investigators wanted to demonstrate the value of multiparameter flow cytometry in detecting human tumor cells of colorectal cancer in normal peripheral blood after cryosurgery with or without dendritic cell(DC)-cytokine-induced killers(CIK) treatment, and the investigators also compared the specificity with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.

Histological proof is a crucial and necessary step for appropriate care in oncology. In the case of pancreatic cancer, histological proof from pathological analysis of the surgical specimen is very rare due to the limited number (15-20 %) of localized tumor accessible to surgical resection. In most cases, invasive endoscopic explorations are necessary for histological diagnosis before deciding of the most appropriate treatment (palliative chemotherapy or radiochemotherapy). The endoscopic ultrasound with fine needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) is currently considered as the first-line endoscopic procedure for the cytological diagnosis of solid pancreatic tumors. The technique is performed under general anesthesia with sensitivity for the diagnosis of adenocarcinoma of 80% in case of a single procedure and 92% in situations where three different procedures are required. EUS-FNA has to be performed by a physician properly trained for this type of interventional endoscopy. Some severe complications may occur but are relatively rare in expert centers (bleeding, perforation, complications of general anesthesia ...). Diagnostic alternative approach is biological with research in the peripheral blood of markers of tumor disease. It is possible to detect indirect markers which are molecules produced by tumor tissue (eg CA19.9) and direct markers which reflect the presence of tumor biological material (circulating tumor cells (CTCs) or circulating tumor DNA). The value of detection of CTCs is not determined for the diagnostic and therapeutic management of pancreatic cancer. Indeed, no study has evaluated the diagnosis performance of circulating markers with EUS-FNA, the reference method for the diagnosis of unresectable forms.

The main objective of this study is to compare results for the detection of circulating melanoma cells (CMC) using CellSearch versus EPISPOT (EPithelial ImmunoSPOT) techniques between a group of patients with metastatic melanoma and a group of hospitalized control patients.

Despite the availability of several preoperative diagnostic techniques, accurate pretreatment staging of esophageal cancer (EC) remains challenging. Therefore, The investigators evaluated the prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with EC.

Primary Objectives: To validate the prognostic significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in patients with newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer (MBC). To prospectively determine if assessment of CTCs can be used to stratify patients with MBC into two prognostic groups independent of existing methods i.e. hormone-receptor status, site of metastasis (e.g. visceral vs. non visceral) and treatment administered (e.g. chemotherapy vs. hormonal therapy). To incorporate this information into the current TNM staging system by sub-classifying stage IV disease into two prognostic groups, Stage IVA and Stage IVB. Secondary Objective: 1. To perform global gene profiling on selected specimens and correlate the profiles with clinical outcomes.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have the potential to provide a surrogate for'real-time biopsy' of tumor biological activity. Enumeration and molecular characterization of CTCs in pancreatic cancer could play an important role in diagnosis, predicting the risk for tumor recurrence, and providing novel target therapy biomarkers.In view of these facts, We wanted to demonstrate the value of multiparameter flow cytometry in detecting human tumor cells of pancreatic cancer in normal peripheral blood after cryosurgery with or without dendritic cell(DC)-cytokine-induced killers(CIK) treatment, and we also compared the specificity with reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method.

The purpose of this study is to establish the circulating tumor cell (CTC) assay as a surrogate for tissue diagnosis of suspected primary lung cancer. This is done through evaluating clinical and molecular markers to stratify the outcome/survival in patients with thoracic malignancies treated at Yale University/Yale-New Haven Hospital, University of California San Diego/Moores Cancer Center, Billings Clinic Cancer Center.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of using novel decellularized tissue matrices to isolate and culture circulating tumor cells (CTCs) collected from patients with metastatic solid tumor malignancies.

The purpose of this study is to see if researchers can detect circulating tumor cells (CTC) and circulating endothelial cells (CEC) in the blood.