Project: Establishment of a rare cell isolation and enumeration platform for cancer diagnosis and other uses
This project will combine the universal capture of rare circulating tumor cells methodology of Liquid Biopsy (Sweden), with the advanced microfluidic individual cell handling, imaging, evaluation and enumeration techniques of Chemometec (Denmark) to create a comprehensive integrated technology that has applications in cancer research, clinical trials, and clinical diagnosis and management._x000D__x000D_It is well known that cancers spread to distant organs by way of cells entering the blood or lymphatic system. These circulating tumor cells (CTCs) form metastases, secondary tumors, in sites that are distant from the primary tumor, often affecting multiple organs. These metastases cause most of the sickness and death from cancer, not the primary tumor. Capture and analysis of CTCs as they spread would give physicians advanced warning that to more effectively combat the disease. Today´s cytological (cell based) diagnosis is however not based on these CTCs, but on sampling of the primary tumor by biopsy. The reason for this is that capture and analysis of these rare cells is difficult and there are very few methods available to do this effectively. This has negative consequences for the physicians’ ability to accurately determine the properties of the tumor. The primary tumor may contain many sub-clones, and it is not possible for the pathologist to know, based on that information alone, which clone will cause the spread of the disease. The ability to accurately identify and quantify CTCs at an early disease stage, is thus an important additional diagnostic aid since it gives direct access to those clones that are in the process of spreading, and allows treatment to be directed against them directly. _x000D__x000D_After curative treatment, aiming for a state in which no primary tumor reCOs, it is also important to be able to assess whether any cancer cells reCO in the body; a state known as minimal residual disease, where there are still small distant deposits of cancer cells that cannot be observed clinically or by imaging techniques. Some of which may give rise to CTCs. These are the cells that are the targets of the post surgical adjuvant therapy and which, if left untreated, may give rise to recurrence of the disease. Without access to CTCs for diagnosis the adjuvant treatment is thus given “blind”, based on the general experience of clinicians, rather than on the diagnosis of the individual patient._x000D__x000D_CTCs also serve as an early read-out of whether a treatment is successful. Effective treatment is expected to reduce the number of CTCs. It can therefore be a very helpful aid when testing new treatments or during the monitoring of treatment of the patient, and may be used to guide treatment decisions._x000D__x000D_Finally scientists conducting basic cancer research may need access to CTCs in order to assist in research into the molecular biology of the disease, to be able to identify possible new drug targets and companion diagnostics, and for the analysis of the gene expression patterns of the CTCs. _x000D__x000D__x000D_The project Pship will combine the sensitive universal technique of rare cancer cell capture of Liquid Biopsy with the advanced imaging and quantification technologies suited for those small numbers of cells offered by Chemometec, to develop effective ways to comprehensively identify, analyse and quantify the captured CTC cells. The system will initially be developed for use as a research tool and a clinical trials tool, followed later by a clinical diagnostic instrument. The reason to postpone the clinical application is the additional validation requirement with clinical samples and clinical follow-up.
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Acronym
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CellCleanUpSystems
(Reference Number: 8445)
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Duration
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01/09/2013 - 31/08/2016
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Project Topic
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This project will develop a new instrument for the automated capture and image analysis of circulating tumor cells from blood samples of cancer patients to support assessment of disease type and severity, and evaluation and monitoring of therapy.
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Network
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Eurostars
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Call
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Eurostars Cut-Off 10
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Project partner
