Project description:To characterize the most frequent genomic alterations in circulating tumor cells in breast cancer using a paired tumor-normal approach. Each normal sample was obtained from the white blood cell fraction of a patient's blood from which corresponding circulating tumor cells were isolated.
Project description:In many patients with solid tumors circulating tumor cells (CTCs), that form metastases, can be identified in peripheral blood. Detection and characterization of CTCs in cancer patients provide a unique opportunity to predict patient survival, select and monitor the efficacy of treatment as well as to gain insights into the cascade of metastatic events. Here, we describe a novel approach to identify CTC-specific molecular markers. Using an integrated platform for immunomagnetic enrichment and immunofluorescent identification of CTCs, blood samples with large numbers of CTCs were identified from patients with colorectal, prostate and breast cancers. Despite enrichment, CTCs are still outnumbered by "nonspecifically" captured leukocytes. In order to determine gene expression profile for CTCs, "background" gene expression signature of white blood cells must be taken into account. To this end, following enrichment for CTCs, RNA was also extracted from the remaining CTC-depleted blood samples. The following samples were used to generate the global expression profiles for CTCs:<br><br> 1a) SAMPLE170711SUB735: CTC-enriched blood sample from a patient with breast cancer). 3700 CTCs were identified per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood in this patient.<br> 1b) SAMPLE170712SUB735: Corresponding CTC-depleted blood sample for the above patient with breast cancer.<br> 2a) SAMPLE170829SUB750: CTC-enriched blood sample from a patient with prostate cancer. 647 CTCs were identified per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood in this patient.<br> 2b) SAMPLE170830SUB750: Corresponding CTC-depleted blood sample for the above patient with prostate cancer.<br> 3a) SAMPLE170831SUB751: CTC-enriched sample from a patient with colorectal cancer. 180 CTCs were identified per 7.5 ml of peripheral blood in this patient.<br> 3b) SAMPLE170832SUB751: Corresponding CTC-depleted blood sample for the above patient with colorectal cancer.
Project description:The CTC-iChip microfluidic device [PMID: 23552373 ] enables isolation of rare viable circulating tumor cells (CTCs) directly from whole blood specimens of patients with cancer. Reanalysis of freshly isolated CTC from 31 women with hormone receptor positive metastatic breast cancer.
Project description:Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are shed from primary tumors into the bloodstream, mediating the hematogenous spread of cancer to distant organs. Using a pancreatic cancer mouse model, we applied a microfluidic device to isolate CTCs independently of tumor epitopes, subjecting these to single cell RNA-sequencing. This study was conducted to determine the heterogeneity of pancreatic CTCs and to compare these CTCs to matched primary tumors, cell line controls (NB508 cancer cell line and MEF non-cancer cell line), primary tumor single cells, and normal leukocytes/WBCs. We profiled RNA from 75 single cells circulating in mouse blood enriched for circulating tumor cells from 5 mice, 12 single cells from a mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line, 16 single cells from the nb508 mouse pancreatic cancer cell line, 12 single mouse white blood cells, 18 single GFP lineage-traced circulating tumor cells from two mice, 20 single GFP lineage-traced cancer cells from the primary pancreatic tumor of a mouse, and 34 dilutions to 10 or 100 picograms of total RNA from mouse primary pancreatic tumors from 4 mice.
Project description:For further validation that the circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCC) patients were indeed cancer cells rather than non-specific contaminated cells such as white blood cells (WBCs), we examined the copy number alterations (CNAs) of the captured CTCs by aCGH (array comparative genomic hybridization).
Project description:Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) play a fundamental role in cancer progression. However, in mice, limited blood volume and the rarity of CTCs in the bloodstream preclude longitudinal, in-depth studies of these cells using existing liquid biopsy techniques. Here, we present an optofluidic system that continuously collects fluorescently-labeled CTCs from a genetically-engineered mouse model for several hours per day over multiple days or weeks. The system is based on a microfluidic cell-sorting chip connected serially to an un-anesthetized mouse via an implanted arteriovenous shunt. Pneumatically-controlled microfluidic valves capture CTCs as they flow through the device and CTC-depleted blood is returned back to the mouse via the shunt. To demonstrate the utility of our system, we profile CTCs isolated longitudinally from animals over a four-day treatment with the BET inhibitor JQ1 using single-cell RNA-Seq (scRNA-Seq) and show that our approach eliminates potential biases driven by inter-mouse heterogeneity that can occur when CTCs are collected across different mice. The CTC isolation and sorting technology presented here provides a research tool to help reveal details of how CTCs change over time, allowing studies to credential changes in CTCs as biomarkers of drug response and facilitating future studies to understand the role of CTCs in metastasis.
Project description:Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) found in the blood of pancreatic cancer patients show a worse prognosis to therapy if they are seen in clusters of cells with neutrophils or platelets or with other cell types than when they are seen as singlets. We wanted to investigate if there is a sec-ondary mode of communication between the CTCs and neutrophils that causes them to associ-ate. We describe for the first time an extravesicular (EV) mediated communication between CTCs and neutrophils that modulates early transcriptome changes that can cause neutrophils to partially degranulate and form associations. We also identify the protein cargo carried in such EVs and how when added to naïve neutrophils, they can modulate transcriptomic changes in neutrophils partially disarming them to form clusters rather than undergo specialized cell death, which is characterized by release of condensed chromatin (NETs) and granular contents termed as NETosis
Project description:The enumeration of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood correlates with clinical outcome in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC). We analyzed the molecular profiling of peripheral blood from 43 metastatic CRPC patients with known CTC content in order to identify genes that may be related to prostate cancer progression. Global gene expression analysis identified the differential expression of 282 genes between samples with ?5 CTCs vs <5 CTCs, 58.6% of which were previously described as over-expressed in prostate cancer (18.9% in primary tumors and 56.1% in metastasis). Those genes were involved in survival functions such as metabolism, signal transduction, gene expression, and cell growth, death, and movement. The expression of selected genes was evaluated by quantitative RT-PCR. This analysis revealed a two-gene model (SELENBP1 and MMP9) with a high significant prognostic ability (HR 6; 95% CI 2.61 - 13.79; P<0.0001). The combination of the two-gene signature plus the CTCs count showed a higher prognostic ability than neither CTCs enumeration nor gene expression alone (P<0.05). This study shows a gene expression profile in PBMNC is associated with CTCs count and clinical outcome in metastatic CRPC, describing genes and pathways potentially associated with CRPC progression. The complete database comprised the expression measurements of 43 metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) samples and their asociation with the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Twenty of them have a number circulating tumor cells (CTCs) greater than 5.
Project description:We developed a method to isolate pure circulating tumor cells (CTC). RNA from such CTCs isolated from the peripheral blood of metastatic breats cnacer patients and gene expression was performed using cDNAmicroarray. we used cDNA array to compare gene expression of CTCs with normal epithelial and breast tumor samples normal peripheral blood, normal epithelium, and CTCs
Project description:Unraveling the yet unknown molecular mechanisms regulating the biology of metastasis-competent Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) is important for better understanding metastatic growth and disease relapses in patients with colon cancer. We investigated and compared the transcriptome profiles of the CTC line and of a cell line derived from a primary colon cancer to get some insight into the specific molecular mechanism of metastasis-competent CTCs. We used microarrays to establish the molecular portrait of the metastasis-competent CTC and of HT-29 cells