title: Sensitive and direct detection of circulating tumor cells by multimarker µ-nuclear magnetic resonance.
abstract: Identifying circulating tumor cells (CTCs) with greater sensitivity could facilitate early detection of cancer and rapid assessment of treatment response. Most current technologies use EpCAM expression as a CTC identifier. However, given that a significant fraction of cancer patients have low or even absent EpCAM levels, there is a need for better detection methods. Here, we hypothesize that a multimarker strategy combined with direct sensing of CTC in whole blood would increase the detection of CTC in patients. Accordingly, molecular profiling of biopsies from a patient cohort revealed a four-marker set (EpCAM, HER-2, EGFR, and MUC-1) capable of effectively differentiating cancer cells from normal host cells. Using a point-of-care micro-nuclear magnetic resonance (µNMR) system, we consequently show that this multimarker combination readily detects individual CTC directly in whole blood without the need for primary purification. We also confirm these results in a comparative trial of patients with ovarian cancer. This platform could potentially benefit a broad range of applications in clinical oncology.
authors: Center for Systems Biology, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02114, USA.
authors: Arezou A
authors: AA
authors: Ghazani
authors: Cesar M
authors: CM
authors: Castro
authors: Rostic
authors: R
authors: Gorbatov
authors: Hakho
authors: H
authors: Lee
authors: Ralph
authors: R
authors: Weissleder
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000378:metabolism*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000378:metabolism*; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000378:metabolism*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor