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An improved method now under study to capture rare circulating tumor cells is encouraging news for cancer treatment, and early results are promising.
Meanwhile, Dr. L. Elise Horvath, an oncology/hematology specialist at Central DuPage Hospital Cancer Center in Warrenville, said the testing may be a little misunderstood as the end-all for cancer detection.
“It’s experimental still,” Horvath said. “Circulating tumor cells is not new; we’ve been looking at it for a long time. The testing has become more precise and sophisticated and that’s why people are looking into it for more studies.”
Clinical testing continues and it will be some time before the procedure will be available to patients.
The procedure centers around the CTC-chip, a microchip-based device for capturing CTCs developed in 2007. A redesigned version of the device now in clinical trials appears to be more effective and easier to manufacture than the original, according to Massachusetts General Hospital researchers who are working on the testing.
“We’re hoping the new version will be even better than the one that has already been tested,” hospital spokeswoman Sue McGreevey said. “It might be that one version works for one use and the other for another use.”
CTCs are living solid tumor cells found at extremely low levels in the bloodstream. Prior to 2007, it was not possible to obtain information from CTCs that would be useful in determining a course of treatment.
The new device, the HB-(herringbone) Chip, may provide more comprehensive and easily accessible data from captured tumor cells, according to MGH.
“So far, the data that I’ve seen from the studies published in the past haven’t given any definitive answer as to whether it’s useful or not,” said Central DuPage Hospital’s Horvath. “Right now we’re unsure how useful this test would be. In reality, the data isn’t strong enough for it to be definitely useful. I believe you need to wait until all the evidence is there.”
Horvath added she was hopeful good news would come out of the study.
“People want hope, they want good news, and we have had some good news come along the way,” she said.
Dr. Rodney B. Nelson, medical director of Delnor Hospital’s cancer program in Geneva, said CTCs are nothing new and were identified decades ago. But in the last few years the technology has gotten much better to chart the cells.
An improved method now under study to capture rare circulating tumor cells is encouraging news for cancer treatment, and early results are promising.
Meanwhile, Dr. L. Elise Horvath, an oncology/hematology specialist at Central DuPage Hospital Cancer Center in Warrenville, said the testing may be a little misunderstood as the end-all for cancer detection.
“It’s experimental still,” Horvath said. “Circulating tumor cells is not new; we’ve been looking at it for a long time. The testing has become more precise and sophisticated and that’s why people are looking into it for more studies.”
Clinical testing continues and it will be some time before the procedure will be available to patients.
The procedure centers around the CTC-chip, a microchip-based device for capturing CTCs developed in 2007. A redesigned version of the device now in clinical trials appears to be more effective and easier to manufacture than the original, according to Massachusetts General Hospital researchers who are working on the testing.
“We’re hoping the new version will be even better than the one that has already been tested,” hospital spokeswoman Sue McGreevey said. “It might be that one version works for one use and the other for another use.”
CTCs are living solid tumor cells found at extremely low levels in the bloodstream. Prior to 2007, it was not possible to obtain information from CTCs that would be useful in determining a course of treatment.
The new device, the HB-(herringbone) Chip, may provide more comprehensive and easily accessible data from captured tumor cells, according to MGH.
“So far, the data that I’ve seen from the studies published in the past haven’t given any definitive answer as to whether it’s useful or not,” said Central DuPage Hospital’s Horvath. “Right now we’re unsure how useful this test would be. In reality, the data isn’t strong enough for it to be definitely useful. I believe you need to wait until all the evidence is there.”
Horvath added she was hopeful good news would come out of the study.
“People want hope, they want good news, and we have had some good news come along the way,” she said.
Dr. Rodney B. Nelson, medical director of Delnor Hospital’s cancer program in Geneva, said CTCs are nothing new and were identified decades ago. But in the last few years the technology has gotten much better to chart the cells.
As for the new testing, Dr. Nelson said it will be very interesting — but a lot of work remains to be done.
“These tests have been commercially available for years and the finding of them has some prognosticating success,” he said. “It certainly has the potential of being an important breakthrough. But that is going to have to be shown the case in imperic trials and that will take a few years.”
Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital oncologist Dr. James Hannigan said while it represents an improvement in the detection of cancer, there appeared to be an incredible amount of hype over the technique.
“We’re a long way off before we see the clinical ability for it to have a positive impact on a person’s life,” Dr. Hannigan said.
