Study suggests blood test can help improve treatment outcomes for breast cance...( Washington DC -- With the goal of ta...),Health

Washington, DC -- With the goal of tailoring cancer treatment for each individual, researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center today presented a study suggesting a simple blood test can help doctors more reliably assess treatment efficacy for patients with metastatic breast cancer.

It can take several weeks and sometimes months to determine if a particular cancer treatment is working because it can take that long to observe any significant radiographic changes in tumor size or appearance, says Minetta Liu, M.D., of Georgetowns Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. Right now, we have to rely on radiology studies such as CT scans, ultrasound, and the like to determine whether or not there is disease progression. With this new blood test, we have another reliable tool that may allow us to determine much sooner if a therapy is ineffective so that we can change therapy earlier and potentially make more significant improvements in survival.

Using the FDA-approved CellSearch technology, researchers measured the number of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in blood collected from women with metastatic breast cancer. About one tablespoon of blood was collected every three to four weeks. The number of CTCs was correlated with disease response or progression as determined by standard radiology studies performed every 9-12 weeks. The women in the study received various treatments including chemotherapy, endocrine therapy, and combination therapy with a biologic agent.

A CTC count of five was used as the threshold, based on previous studies. There was a highly significant difference in the distribution of progression between two groups of patients defined by their CTC result. Seventy-one percent of patients who had a CTC greater than or equal to five had disease progression, and 66 percent of patients with a CTC count of less than five did not.

A CTC count of five or greater at the time of restaging was associated with a 5.32
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