Circulating tumor cells – The experts weigh in:
by James Lim
An excerpt from previous interviews from the leading cancer researchers on the therapeutic potential of circulating tumor cells (CTCs).
“Everybody understands how important research on these cell is; first and foremost, for patients, but also for other reasons, such as health economics. If doctors can use CTCs to tell patients that a drug is not going to work ahead of time, then you’ve spared the patients toxicity and allowed them to move on to something else.”
– Dr. Howard Scher (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)
“The future of targeted therapies in cancer is completely dependent on a patient’s genetic profile, and you also need to be able to do serial monitoring of patients over time. When a patient stops responding to therapy, you need to know why and the principal mechanism of resistance.”
– Dr. Daniel Haber (MGH)
“We’re trying to find out which genes are being expressed in the CTCs and whether they might help us choose a therapy.”
– Dr. Stephanie Jeffery (Stanford)
“What’s most exciting about the technology is reaching a point where we can ask some questions, and trials are actually being done in multiple diseases. The most important question being: How will testing CTCs help us make medical decisions?”
– Dr. Howard Scher (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)
