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Project

Study towards molecular heterogeneity of circulating tumor cells and their representation of metastatic sites in patients with metastatic breast cancer.

Cancer metastases is responsible for 90% of the cancer related deaths. Due to an increased knowledge of the biology of cancer, more patients are referred to targeted therapy. The efficacy of these drugs depends on the molecular characteristics of the cancer cells. In addition, recent research has shown that molecular characteristics of cancer cells can change during cancer progression and metastasis. Since it is practically difficult to sample metastatic tissue repeatedly, investigating alternative matrices is imperative, paving the way for liquid biopsies. One possibility is to evaluate the molecular characteristics of circulating tumor cells, obtained from peripheral blood. However, before these cells can be used as matrix for molecular diagnostics, is should be evaluated if these CTCs have the same characteristics as the primary or metastatic tumor cells. In addition, due to heterogeneity in the primary tumor/metastases, is should be evaluated how many CTCs need to be analyzed in order to capture the dominant driving clones. In order to evaluate this, genomic changes from CTCs will be compared to the genomic composition of the primary tumor and the metastases. If successful, this project will allow a translation of liquid biopsies from the bench to the bedside, sparing patients from difficult and painful treatments.
Date:1 Oct 2015 →  30 Sep 2016
Keywords:BREAST CANCER
Disciplines:Diagnostics, Laboratory medicine, Morphological sciences, Oncology, Medicinal products
Project type:Collaboration project