Active clinical trials for "Neoplastic Cells, Circulating"

The primary aim of this study is to determine whether we can identify human lung cancer tumor cells in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients.

The purpose of this research study is to determine if the EGFR mutation can be detected in CTCs. CTCs are cancer cells that are shed from solid tumors and float freely in the bloodstream. A device called the CTC-chip has been developed to find CTCs in the blood of patients with cancer. This is an experimental device. Using this device, the investigators will test participants' blood to try and find CTCs with the EGFR mutation and compare them with the results from the biopsy your doctor has recommended. The long-term goal of this research is to develop a way to test for the EGFR mutation that is less invasive than a tumor biopsy.

Objective: To test the sensitivity of a proprietary novel filtration device designed to capture and concentrate circulating tumor cells (CTCs).

Fifteen cohorts will be opened. Each cohort will explore one analysis method and/or tumoral type. Up to 50 patient can be included into each cohort.

It is hypothesized that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from pancreatic adenocarcinoma are released into the peritoneal cavity through blood lost during the surgical resection of these tumors resulting in peritoneal recurrence despite appropriate surgical resection. Targeting the mechanisms responsible for CTC adhesion to the peritoneum may result in inhibition of implantation and growth, thus preventing this mode of pancreatic cancer recurrence postoperatively.

The best strategy to prevent colorectal cancer (CRC) death lies in early detection and early treatment at the local disease status of tumor. After curative resection of tumor, there are about 5~10% of stage I, 20~30% of stage II and 40~50% of stage III patients suffering metastasis during subsequent follow-up periods. Although carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is the most widely used biomarker for postoperative monitoring of recurrence on asymptomatic patients, it is difficult to use CEA as biological marker to identify the population with high recurrent risk in patients with early-stage cancer because lower than half of patients with early-stage cancer do not have CEA elevation. For improving the survival of patients with early-stage CRC, we need effort to search more useful biological markers to predict the risk of tumor recurrence and to select out patients with high recurrent risk to receive preventive adjuvant therapy. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood play an essential role in cancer metastasis. Hence, the detection of CTCs and subsequent analysis can potentially revolutionize the cancer care ranging from screening, diagnosis, monitoring, to drug selection and so on. In the past decade, many methods using magnetic beads (CellSearch), filtration (RareCelletc), or flow cytometry have been developed but all of them have the shortcomings from low sensitivity, low purity, to unable to retrieve cells for downstream molecular analysis and cell culture. Recently, a biomimetic affinity based microfluidic platform has overcome abovementioned technical challenges. Importantly, by using only 2 ml of peripheral blood, Sinica's team has shown that the enumeration of CTCs increases with the CRC disease progression, where the mean CTC counts are 3, 15, 29 and 60 per ml for the stages I, II, III and IV, respectively. The results imply that monitoring CTC enumeration serially may serve as a prediction marker to identify the CRC patients with high probability of recurrence. The aims of this study are toestablishing CTC platform standard operation protocol (SOP) that leads to certification of ISO 13485 and to establish CTC criteria and evaluate its prediction power of early detection of colorectal cancer recurrence.

To evaluate the efficiency of a microdevice for circulating tumor cells isolation and to correlate the circulating titre with response and progression.

This study enrolled men with prostate cancer who had failed hormone therapy (as shown by rising prostate-specific antigen [PSA] levels) and who were about to start a new line of chemotherapy. Blood was drawn prior to the patient receiving chemotherapy and then monthly thereafter for up to 18 months or until disease progression, whichever occurred first. The blood was tested to find circulating tumor cells (CTC) and to count them. The circulating tumor cell levels were studied in relation to the patient's overall survival. Serum was also collected for PSA testing, and additional blood samples were drawn to test for circulating endothelial cells and RNA was isolated for future gene expression testing.

Several studies conducted over the past decade have shown that Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can be used as a marker for predicting disease progression and survival in patients with early or metastatic cancer. A high number of CTCs correlate with aggressive disease, increased metastasis and decreased survival rates. Knowledge of metastasis mechanisms was mainly obtained from mouse models with CTCs after orthotopic transplants. The only possibility to study the patient's CTC subpopulations is to carry out ex-vivo expansion and develop an animal model with CTC xenograft. Because circulating blood collection is simple and non-invasive, CTCs can be used as a marker to track disease progression and survival in real time. CTCs could also guide therapeutic choice.

As prostate cancer progresses into castration-resistant stage from initial hormone-sensitive status, the biological behavior of tumor cells that dissociated from primary lesions changed. Considered a "liquid biopsy," these circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can show how a patient's cancer responded to treatments. The purpose of this study is to determine whether sequentially analyzing the expression of molecular markers in high volume circulating tumor cells in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer patients can predict the therapeutic effects and outcomes of these patients.