‘Liquid’ Biopsies Build Understanding of Chemo-resistant Lung Cancer

the Cancer Therapy Advisor take:

Resistance to chemotherapy remains a problem in effectively treating cancer, especially small-cell lung cancer (SCLC). Unfortunately, researchers have been unable to make significant progress in understanding resistance due to an inability to track the disease over time. Tumor tissue contains a limited number of cancer cells, and, moreover, traditional biopsy is invasive and cannot be easily repeated in patients. In this study published in Nature Medicine, researchers addressed this hurdle by evaluating circulating tumor cells in blood drawn from patients with SCLC. They found that survival was related number of tumor cells. Further, they were able to repeat the study in mice with similar results. With this information, clinicians can easily retest patients, track how they are responding to chemotherapy, and potentially predict survival.