Diagnostic leukapheresis enables reliable detection of circulating tumor cells of nonmetastatic cancer patients

• DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1313594110
• Publication Date: 2013-09-25T05:05:06Z
• Authors: Johannes C. Fischer; Dieter Niederacher; Stefan A. Topp; Ellen Honisch; Sarah Schumacher; Norma Schmitz; Luisa Zacarias Fö...; Christian Vay; Imke Hoffmann; Nikola S. Kasprowicz; Philip G. Hepp; Svjetlana Mohrmann; Ulrike Nitz; Antje Stresemann; Thomas Krahn; Tanja Henze; Evelyn Griebsch; Katharina Raba; Jutta M. Rox; Folker Wenzel; Christoph Sproll; Wolfgang Janni; Tanja Fehm; Christoph A. Klein; Wolfram Trudo Kno...; Nikolas H. Stoeck...
• Keywords: Comparative Genomic Hybridization; Breast Neoplasms; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; Statistics, Nonparametric; 3. Good health; Cohort Studies; 03 medical and health sciences; 0302 clinical medicine; Germany; Biomarkers, Tumor; Humans; Female; Leukapheresis; Prospective Studies; Diagnostic Techniques and Procedures; Retrospective Studies

Significance The infrequent detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has hindered their clinical implication and their potential use in the sense of a “liquid biopsy” for cancer diagnosis and therapy. Hypothesizing that the limited blood volume commonly used for CTC analysis (1–10 mL) accounts for variable detection rates, we used leukapheresis to screen large blood volumes for CTCs. This enabled a more reliable detection of CTCs at high frequency even in nonmetastatic cancer patients. Thus, diagnostic leukapheresis may facilitate the routine clinical use of CTCs as biomarkers for personalized medicine. Combined with technologies for single-cell molecular genetics or cell biology, it may significantly improve prediction of therapy response and monitoring, especially in early systemic cancer.