Circulating Tumor Cells Unveil The Genetic Fingerprints Of Lung Cancer Cells

A recent research paper of Dr. Daniel Haber, director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Boston., describes a new technology, using which, doctors will be able to diagnose the stray cancer cells in blood of lung cancer patient and analyze the metamy dugystasis of the cells in his body.

Dr. Daniel Haber, senior author of document that explains the technology, is particularly interested in studying the functionality of the cancer cells because nobody, till today, has been able to understand or study how these cancer cells spread to other parts of the body.

"These are the cells that cause metastases and the lethality of cancer. Now that we can identify and purify them in decent numbers, we can study and hopefully identify some of their vulnerabilities. It opens up a whole field of human metastasis and human therapies." Dr. Haber said.

Although, Haber’s work, to be published on July 24 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, has already been made available on the internet.
According to the paper, “the CTC chip technology uses a silicon chip which consists of 80,000 "columns" coded with an antibody that acts like a "glue" to capture tumor cells ‘that have no business being in the blood’.”

The new technology will also give doctors a clear picture of the genesis and the changes that constantly occur in genetic make-up of the cells. This will put doctors in a better position to prescribe treatment as per the requirements of the patient.

"I think this is key to personalized medicine. As we get to targeted therapies in increasing numbers, and increasing understanding about the genetics that guide targeted therapies, we need a way to know what we're treating."" said Dr. Haber.

CTC chip technology will also arm the doctors to detect cancer at an early stage including those that have tendency to spread.

Dr. Haber further stated that it is of great significance for the doctor to be aware of what he is treating as this would reduce the chances to re-biopsy the tumor each time.

In an earlier study CTC (Circulating Tumor Cells) chip technology was employed to identify CTCs in case of prostate, lung, pancreatic, breast and colon cancers and in 99 percent of the samples the presence of CTC chip was established successfully by the chip.

Thus, the reliability of the CTC chip technology cannot be questioned as such.

Though, the CTC chip consumes a lot of time to detect CTCs in each blood sample, yet Dr. Haber sustained that "this is a proof of principle that we can do this. We need a much more automated system for larger clinical trials."

"It's expensive, but it may well be that if we can identify patients who can have a personalized regimen that works, we will be saving the cost of treating all those patients with regimens that don't work," Dr. Len Horovitz, a pulmonary specialist at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City said.