Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2007 Apr 1;13(7):2023-9.
doi: 10.1158/1078-0432.CCR-06-2701.

Circulating tumor cell analysis in patients with progressive castration-resistant prostate cancer

David R Shaffer  1 , Margaret A Leversha, Daniel C Danila, Oscar Lin, Rita Gonzalez-Espinoza, Bin Gu, Aseem Anand, Katherine Smith, Peter Maslak, Gerald V Doyle, Leon W M M Terstappen, Hans Lilja, Glenn Heller, Martin Fleisher, Howard I Scher
Affiliations

Circulating tumor cell analysis in patients with progressive castration-resistant prostate cancer

David R Shaffer et al. Clin Cancer Res. .

Abstract

Purpose: To better direct targeted therapies to the patients with tumors that express the target, there is an urgent need for blood-based assays that provide expression information on a consistent basis in real time with minimal patient discomfort. We aimed to use immunomagnetic-capture technology to isolate and analyze circulating tumor cells (CTC) from small volumes of peripheral blood of patients with advanced prostate cancer.

Experimental design: Blood was collected from 63 patients with metastatic prostate cancer. CTCs were isolated by the Cell Search system, which uses antibodies to epithelial cell adhesion marker and immunomagnetic capture. CTCs were defined as nucleated cells positive for cytokeratins and negative for CD45. Captured cells were analyzed by immunofluorescence, Papanicolau staining, and fluorescence in situ hybridization.

Results: Most patients (65%) had 5 or more CTCs per 7.5 mL blood sample. Cell counts were consistent between laboratories (c = 0.99) and did not change significantly over 72 or 96 h of storage before processing (c = 0.99). Their identity as prostate cancer cells was confirmed by conventional cytologic analysis. Molecular profiling, including analysis of epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) expression, chromosome ploidy, and androgen receptor (AR) gene amplification, was possible for all prostate cancer patients with >or=5 CTCs.

Conclusions: The analysis of cancer-related alterations at the DNA and protein level from CTCs is feasible in a hospital-based clinical laboratory. The alterations observed in EGFR and AR suggest that the methodology may have a role in clinical decision making.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

Publication types

MeSH terms