Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) as liquid biopsies in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer versus other GI malignancies
Liquid biopsy attention has gone almost entirely to circulating tumor DNA; this ASCO GI 2023 poster reports what real-time circulating tumor cell analysis found across 150 serial draws in metastatic colorectal and other GI cancers.
Presented by Weill Cornell Medicine.
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- Colorectal cancer carried the highest CTC counts of any GI malignancy in the series. Mean 15.8 and median 7.5 cells per draw, against mean 4.2 and median 3 in pancreatic cancer; at least a third of colorectal patients had 3 or more CTCs, while no pancreatic patient exceeded 20.
- 150 draws and 281 test results, run in real time on two different platforms. Up to four serial draws per patient were analysed on both RareCyte and Parsortix, and the two platforms showed overall agreement on the CTCs they detected.
- Biomarkers were read on the cells themselves, not only on their DNA. HER2, PD-L1, Ki-67 and EGFR analyses were feasible wherever CTCs were detected, single-cell sequencing agreed with the clonal aberrations seen on sequencing, and serial draws tracked CTC kinetics showing early clearance.
