Current and potential use of MAINTRAC method for cancer diagnosis and prediction of metastasis

Abstract

Cells shed from solid malignant tumors into the circulation are considered to be the origin of metastases. In spite of a wealth of research on the pathway of metastasis formation, it is still not clear when and how metastases develop, nor is there a consensus on the number and the nature of circulating tumor cells present in individual patients and their relationship to the formation of metastases. We have developed a method to detect a maximum of unselected non-hematological, epithelial cells in the blood, assuming that in cancer patients the majority of these cells are derived from the tumor. Assessment of the number of these cells longitudinally during the course of disease and therapy allows the response to different treatments to be monitored. Due to the viability of the cells, additional analyses such as expression profiles and determination of their sensitivity to drugs can be performed.

Keywords:

• breast cancer
• chemosensitivity testing
• chemotherapy monitoring
• circulating epithelial tumor cells
• maintenance therapy monitoring
• tumor stem cells
• tumor spheres

Financial & competing interests disclosure

The author has no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending or royalties.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• The MAINTRAC method can be performed on blood samples drawn into conventional blood count tubes available in every oncological practice. It can be sent at ambient temperature, no cooling is necessary.

• The MAINTRAC analysis is possible for all epithelial cancers. It evaluates the changes in numbers of vital epithelial tumor suspect cells in blood during therapy and during follow-up.

• The results of the MAINTRAC analysis are independent from the kind of therapy.

• The killing efficiency of different drugs on the circulating tumor suspect cells can be tested in vitro in short time culture allowing selection of the drugs that work best and subsequent monitoring whether the drugs chosen also work in the patient.

• In the future, this will be also possible for the subgroup of patient’s tumor stem cells thus allowing further refinement of individual therapy.

Notes