NUS Scientists use Patient Derived Cancer Cell Culture to Predict Survival and Treatment Outcome

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SINGAPORE, Dec. 1, 2015 /PRNewswire=KYODO JBN/ --

Scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed a

novel technique to efficiently culture clusters containing circulating tumour

cells (CTCs) in 14 days. Using the technique, the team achieved a success rate

of more than 60 per cent in culturing CTCs from patients with metastatic breast

cancer, the highest known success record to-date. This breakthrough brings

researchers a step closer towards enabling personalised cancer treatment and

monitoring.

A paper describing the collaborative work conducted by scientists from the

Mechanobiology Institute, Singapore (MBI) and Cancer Science Institute of

Singapore (CSI) at NUS, together with the National University Cancer Institute,

Singapore (NCIS), was published in the medical journal Oncotarget (2015).

CTCs are 'runaway' cancer cells that escape from primary or secondary tumours.

They circulate in the bloodstream and eventually invade into other parts of the

body where they establish metastasis. CTCs can be found even at early stages of

cancer.

However, CTCs comprise many sub-populations and occur at extremely low

frequencies in blood. Thus, its population needs to be expanded before they can

be used for clinical analysis.

Professor Lim Chwee Teck from MBI, one of the study's lead authors, explained,

"Being able to capture CTCs and grow them efficiently from a blood sample is a

big step forward in liquid biopsy for tumour diagnosis and cancer treatment

monitoring. This could potentially mean that biopsy for cancer diagnosis and

prognosis could be done using a blood test, which is minimally invasive,

instead of having to retrieve cells from the tumour itself. Results of the

tests on these CTCs could help doctors assess the best therapy options for a

patient, and frequent blood tests can also be done during the course of an

anti-cancer treatment to provide a real-time monitoring of a patient's progress

during treatment."

Dr Lee Soo Chin from NCIS and CSI, the study's clinical lead added, "Tests can

potentially be done on the cultured CTCs to guide the selection of drug

therapy. Cultured CTCs of individual patients can be tested for drug

sensitivity to determine the responsiveness of the CTCs to the drugs used in

the cancer treatment. This could allow doctors to decide on the most suitable

drug for the patient based on the drug sensitivity results. As the CTCs can be

cultured in a short time period, the entire testing process can take as short

as four weeks -- two weeks for culturing the CTCs and two weeks for drug

screening."

Current methods of culturing CTCs are either inefficient or required the

elimination of non-cancerous cells that led to the damage or loss of some CTCs

in the process.

Using a combination of specially designed microwells and oxygen-deficient

growth conditions, NUS scientists have successfully created an ideal

environment for tumour cells to grow while other non-cancerous cells gradually

undergo cell death.

This novel technique was tested on 226 clinical blood samples obtained from 92

metastatic breast cancer patients on anti-cancer therapy. The team recorded a

success rate of over 60 per cent in culturing clusters containing CTCs -- more

than two to three times higher than conventional methods.

The team is also currently developing new technologies for liquid biopsies that

will allow single cell analysis to obtain critical information that will be

useful to scientists and clinicians to better treat cancer.

Prof Lim hopes to embark on the development of novel technologies that can

contribute towards personalised or precision medicine.

More information about the study:

http://news.nus.edu.sg/press-releases/9723-cancer-bloodtest-monitor-treatment-outcome

Amal Naquiah

National University of Singapore

+65-6516-5125

amal@nus.edu.sg

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Source: National University of Singapore