Blood test confirmed to be 'powerful predictor' following largest analysis to date

Testing for circulating tumor cells helps inform clinical decisions about treatments and expensive radiologic scans

2011-05-19

(Press-News.org) Washington, DC – Researchers at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center say the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood is a "powerful predictor" to help physicians more reliably assess treatment benefit for patients with metastatic breast cancer. The findings from a large analysis using pooled data from international cancer centers will be presented during a poster session on Monday, June 6th, at the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology in Chicago.

"The current standard of care for monitoring patients with metastatic breast cancer involves the use of radiology studies such as CT scans, ultrasounds, and the like to determine whether or not patients are deriving benefit from their current therapies." says Minetta Liu, M.D., lead investigator of the new analysis and director of translational breast cancer research at Georgetown Lombardi. "These tests can be expensive and invasive, and can negatively impact a patient's quality of life."

Liu says the new analysis substantiates the utility of the CTC test, which counts the number of CTCs in the blood. CTC results at or above the threshold of five are reliably associated with clinical and/or radiographic evidence of worsening disease, strengthening considerations for a change in therapy with the goal of improving long-term patient outcomes.

Enumerating CTCs can be done with various technologies. For this analysis, researchers culled data from peer-reviewed published studies, all of which, by chance, utilized the FDA-approved CellSearch™ technology. Teams from institutions around the world contributed blinded data to create a pooled dataset of 841 patients. This large sample size enabled Liu to confirm findings from other studies that indicate a CTC count of five or more is associated with disease progression. Importantly, the predictive value of CTCs was not affected by treatment type (chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, biologic therapy), tumor type (hormone receptor positive/negative, HER2 positive/negative), or sites of disease involvement.

"Using a blood test to count CTCs in addition to our existing tools for disease monitoring might improve our ability to appropriately treat patients and maximize their quality of life," explains Liu. "When a patient with metastatic breast cancer feels well and looks well, has had normal recent scans and CTC results that are consistently less than five, we feel more confident in her current treatment plan and may delay repeat imaging studies in favor of the less-invasive CTC blood test."

### The study was conducted with no external funding. Liu reports receiving compensation for research-related speaking engagements on behalf of Veridex and various other pharmaceutical companies.

About Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, part of Georgetown University Medical Center and Georgetown University Hospital, seeks to improve the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of cancer through innovative basic and clinical research, patient care, community education and outreach, and the training of cancer specialists of the future. Lombardi is one of only 40 comprehensive cancer centers in the nation, as designated by the National Cancer Institute, and the only one in the Washington, DC, area. For more information, go to http://lombardi.georgetown.edu.

About Georgetown University Medical Center Georgetown University Medical Center is an internationally recognized academic medical center with a three-part mission of research, teaching and patient care (through MedStar Health). GUMC's mission is carried out with a strong emphasis on public service and a dedication to the Catholic, Jesuit principle of cura personalis -- or "care of the whole person." The Medical Center includes the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing & Health Studies, both nationally ranked; Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, designated as a comprehensive cancer center by the National Cancer Institute; and the Biomedical Graduate Research Organization (BGRO), which accounts for the majority of externally funded research at GUMC including a Clinical Translation and Science Award from the National Institutes of Health. In fiscal year 2009-2010, GUMC accounted for nearly 80 percent of Georgetown University's extramural research funding.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

New treatment regimen shows clinical benefit in advanced colon cancer

2011-05-19

Washington, D.C. -- A new treatment regimen for patients with metastatic colon cancer appears to offer clinical benefit even when used after multiple other treatments have failed, say research physicians at Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, a part of Georgetown University Medical Center. The research team found that combining a PARP inhibitor with chemotherapy (temozolomide) offers significant benefit in patients who had no further treatment options. However, the study is small, and does not include a comparison arm, so further investigation is needed, ...

Heart drugs ineffective in treating pulmonary arterial hypertension

2011-05-19

ATS 2011, DENVER – Despite their beneficial effects in treating heart disease, neither aspirin nor simvastatin appear to offer benefit to patients suffering from pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH), according to a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded study conducted at four U.S. medical centers. This was the first NIH-funded randomized clinical trial (RCT) in PAH. The results of the study will be presented at the ATS 2011 International Conference in Denver. PAH is a progressive, incurable disease characterized by increased blood pressure in the arteries of the ...

Maternal smoking causes changes in fetal DNA

2011-05-19

ATS 2011, DENVER - Children whose mothers or grandmothers smoked during pregnancy are at increased risk of asthma in childhood, but the underlying causes of this are not well understood. Now a new study indicates changes in a process called DNA methylation that occurs before birth may be a root cause. The study will be presented at the ATS 2011 International Conference. DNA methylation is a process that can alter a gene's usual function. These altered genes can be passed along from parent to child. In this case, researchers observed DNA methylation-related changes ...

Standing up to fight

2011-05-19

SALT LAKE CITY, May 18, 2011 – A University of Utah study shows that men hit harder when they stand on two legs than when they are on all fours, and when hitting downward rather than upward, giving tall, upright males a fighting advantage. This may help explain why our ape-like human ancestors began walking upright and why women tend to prefer tall men. "The results of this study are consistent with the hypothesis that our ancestors adopted bipedal posture so that males would be better at beating and killing each other when competing for females," says David Carrier, ...

UCSF team discovers key to fighting drug-resistant leukemia

2011-05-19

Doctors who treat children with the most common form of childhood cancer – acute lymphoblastic leukemia – are often baffled at how sometimes the cancer cells survive their best efforts and the most powerful modern cancer drugs. Now a team of scientists led by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco have uncovered the basis for this drug resistance: BCL6, a protein that leukemia cells use to stay alive. Targeting this protein may be the key to fighting drug-resistant leukemia, a discovery that may make cancer drugs more powerful and help doctors formulate ...

Auto Recyclers Seek EPA Retraction of Stormwater Permit Guidance Memorandum

2011-05-19

Today, the Automotive Recyclers Association (ARA) urged the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to retract its November, 2010 Guidance Memorandum that encourages state permitting authorities to measure industrial stormwater discharges through numeric effluent limits rather than use the traditional and effective best management practices (BMP) approach. "This Memorandum goes well beyond simply updating a policy as EPA suggests," says ARA's CEO Michael E. Wilson. "Rather, it appears to represent a major shift in how best to measure stormwater discharges - ...

The Earth's core is melting ... and freezing

2011-05-19

The inner core of the Earth is simultaneously melting and freezing due to circulation of heat in the overlying rocky mantle, according to new research from the University of Leeds, UC San Diego and the Indian Institute of Technology. The findings, published tomorrow in Nature, could help us understand how the inner core formed and how the outer core acts as a 'geodynamo', which generates the planet's magnetic field. "The origins of Earth's magnetic field remain a mystery to scientists," said study co-author Dr Jon Mound from the University of Leeds. "We can't go and ...

HeliScopeCAGE: A new gene expression analysis technique on a single molecule sequencer

2011-05-19

A new gene expression technique adapted for single molecule sequencing has enabled researchers at the RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) to accurately and quantitatively measure gene expression levels using only 100 nanograms of total RNA. The technique, which pairs RIKEN's Cap Analysis of Gene Expression (CAGE) protocol with the Helicos® Genetic Analysis System developed by Helicos BioSciences Corporation, opens the door to the detailed analysis of gene expression networks and rare cell populations. In recent years, next-generation DNA sequencers have produced an increasingly ...

Breaking News! 2011 Urologist Report Reveals "Traction Beats Surgery for Permanent Lengthening of the Male Sex Organ"

2011-05-19

Penile enlargement is one of the most controversial topics today. Many physicians claim that there is no medical proof that the non-surgical methods for increasing the penile size actually work. In addition to that, there are many people online abusing this topic, which is one of the main reasons why everyone is so skeptic about it. With the growing popularity of the penile extenders, one of the most reputable medical journals BJUI (British Journal of Urology International), which is issued as the official journal of the British Association of Urological Surgeons, have ...

Scottish data highlight dangerous practice in pediatric paracetamol prescribing

2011-05-19

Many of the prescriptions issued by GPs for paracetamol either give less than recommended doses to older children or exceed recommended doses in young children. Under-dosing may result in insufficient pain relief and over-dosing can damage a person's liver. "Getting the dose right can become even more complicated when parents also give their children additional paracetamol that they have bought over the counter," says James McLay, a senior member of the research team who studied this issue. The findings are published in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. Paracetamol ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

People with sensitive personalities more likely to experience mental health problems

Want to improve early detection of diabetes? Look in the same households as those with abnormal blood sugar

Unveiling the gut-heart connection: The role of microbiota in heart failure

Breakthrough insights into tumor angiogenesis and endothelial cell origins

Unlocking the power of mitochondrial biogenesis to combat acute kidney injury

MIT study sheds light on graphite’s lifespan in nuclear reactors

The role of fucosylation in digestive diseases and cancer

Meet Allie, the AI-powered chess bot trained on data from 91 million games

Students’ image tool offers sharper signs, earlier detection in the lab or from space

UBC Okanagan study suggests fasting effects on the body are not the same for everyone

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Children’s Hospital Colorado researchers conduct first prospective study of pediatric EoE patients and disease progression