15 Feb New ‘Blood Biopsies’ with Experimental Device to Speed Cancer Diagnosis and Predict Disease Spread

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Edwin Posadas

Edwin Posadas, MD, FACP, KM
Director, Translational Oncology Program
Medical Director, Urologic Oncology Program
Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute
Clinical Chief, Division of Hematology/Oncology
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine
Cedars-Sinai

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings of your work so far?

Response: The technology we are using is called a NanoVelcro assay. This is a nanotechnology that can be used to isolate rare cells and cell-like particles in the blood stream. We have focused the use of the NanoVelcro on isolating circulating tumor cells (or CTCs). This technology is about 10 times more sensitive than that currently used in clinics. More importantly, because of some modification in our approach, we can now not only capture CTCs, but also examine them under the microscope and even analyze them using advanced molecular techniques. In this way, we take a classic and modern approach to our work.

We firmly believe that there is much to be learned by studying the shapes of these CTCs. We in the cancer field have long known that shape and cellular function are intimately related. In fact, a young pathologist in our group readily recognized that patients with the most aggressive cancers had CTCs with small nuclei, which we verified in a larger study. We are now exploring the importance of these shape variations in CTCs by coupling this classic microscopy-driven approach with RNA characterizations, giving us insight into the molecular nature of the CTC. My collaborator, UCLA Professor Hsian-Rong Tseng, PhD, is a brilliant engineer who has found ways of altering the system to allow us to capture and release live cells for analysis. By using this system, we believe that one day we may be able to avoid performing invasive tissue biopsies to study a cancer.

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report?

Response: Several of us in the field are working together with a goal of effecting personalized precision medicine in cancer through blood testing. Our group, initially assembled through the Office of the Vice President (under former Vice President Joe Biden), came together to make this dream a reality. The Blood Profiling Atlas in Cancer (BloodPAC), part of the U.S. Cancer Moonshot Program, is charged with this task. Experts from academia, industry and government regulation are working together to share valuable information and resources in an unprecedented way. I believe this group will pave the way for others to do this type of work, enabling doctors to bring modern molecular medicine to all patients affected by cancer.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Response: For the future, we will need techniques that allow us to work with low cell quantities. Many of the modern techniques in precision oncology require large enough biopsies for doctors to analyze the cancer in depth. We and others are finding we can do work of similar quality in the blood stream, but it’s requiring us to adapt many existing techniques to low cell number. Those who can help develop those techniques and help us to refocus efforts in modern diagnostics to working with blood will be part of the future wave of cancer research.

MedicalResearch.com: Is there anything else you would like to add? Any disclosures?

Response: The type of work in which we are engaged as part of the BloodPAC represents a truly important advance in cancer medicine. Cancer moves and changes too quickly to subject patients to repeated biopsies. Using the blood to understand how cancer is changing represents a sensible and obvious next step for progress. Patients and doctors have demanded this, and now the technologies are becoming available.

Anyone who can help move these efforts along will be a welcome partner in these important research efforts that will change how we look at cancer. Being able to sample cancers with great frequency will increase the dynamic resolution of our data. It would be akin to trying to understand an adult in full detail by looking at one or two pictures of him or her as an infant or a small child. With blood testing, we can watch how the cancer changes on a very frequent basis, like seeing a picture of someone once a year or once a month to see how they are changing over time.

No disclosures

Citation:
Cancer. 2015 Sep 15;121(18):3240-51. doi: 10.1002/cncr.29455. Epub 2015 May 14.
Subclassification of prostate cancer circulating tumor cells by nuclear size reveals very small nuclear circulating tumor cells in patients with visceral metastases.
Chen JF, Ho H, Lichterman J, Lu YT, Zhang Y, Garcia MA, Chen SF, Liang AJ, Hodara E, Zhau HE, Hou S, Ahmed RS, Luthringer DJ, Huang J, Li KC, Chung LW, Ke Z, Tseng HR, Posadas EM.

Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.

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Last Updated on February 15, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD