Circulating tumor cells as predictive biomarkers in the risk stratification of DCIS: Evidence of early dissemination.

ABSTRACT: Overtreatment of patients with ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is driven by a lack of a reliable prognostic biomarker. Widespread mammographic screening has resulted in a substantial increase in women diagnosed with DCIS. To improve patient risk stratification, we investigate circulating tumor cells (CTCs) as a biomarker for DCIS patients' biological aggressiveness and as an indicator of early dissemination. We apply microfluidics to enrich CTCs from 34 patients with DCIS and find a significantly higher concentration of CTCs compared to in healthy controls. We profile CTCs and matched DCIS tissues using single-cell RNA sequencing. We find that CTCs express higher clonal aberrations when compared to white blood cells from the same samples, and clonal comparisons between matched tissue and C

SUBMITTER: Nagpal N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12571075 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature