Phenotypic Characterization of Circulating Lung Cancer Cells for Clinically Actionable Targets

Overview

Journal Cancers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Oncology

Date 2019 Mar 21

PMID 30889898

Citations 27

Authors

Arutha Kulasinghe

Joanna Kapeleris

Carolina Cooper

Majid Ebrahimi Warkiani

Kenneth OByrne

Chamindie Punyadeera

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

In non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC), tumour biopsy can often be an invasive procedure. The development of a non-invasive methodology to study genetic changes via circulating tumour cells (CTCs) is an appealing concept. Whilst CTCs typically remain as rare cells, improvements in epitope-independent CTC isolation techniques has given rise to a greater capture of CTCs. In this cross sectional study, we demonstrate the capture and characterization of NSCLC CTCs for the clinically actionable markers epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) alterations, anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) rearrangements and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression. The study identified CTCs/CTC clusters in 26/35 Stage IV NSCLC patients, and subsequently characterized the CTCs for EGFR mutation, ALK status and PD-L1 status. This pilot study demonstrates the potential of a non-invasive fluid biopsy to determine clinically relevant biomarkers in NSCLC.

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