California NanoSystems Institute, Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, Department of Molecular and Medical Pharmacology, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States; Key Laboratory for Nano-Bio Interface, Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Suzhou, 215123, PR China.
Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, Department of Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095, United States; Key Laboratory of Endocrinology of National Health Commission, Department of Endocrinology, Peking Union Medical College Hospital, Chinese Academy of Medical Science and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing, 100730, PR China.
Biosens Bioelectron. 2022 Mar 1;199:113854. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2021.113854. Epub 2021 Dec 3.
Circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters are present in cancer patients with severe metastasis, resulting in poor clinical outcomes. However, CTC clusters have not been studied as extensively as single CTCs, and the clinical utility of CTC clusters remains largely unknown. In this study, we aim sought to explore the feasibility of NanoVelcro Chips to simultaneously detect both single CTCs and CTC clusters with negligible perturbation to their intrinsic properties in neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). We discovered frequent CTC clusters in patients with advanced NETs and examined their potential roles, together with single NET CTCs, as novel biomarkers of patient response following peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). We observed dynamic changes in both total NET CTCs and NET CTC cluster counts in NET patients undergoing PRRT which correlated with clinical outcome. These preliminary findings suggest that CTC clusters, along with single CTCs, offer a potential non-invasive option to monitor the treatment response in NET patients undergoing PRRT.
循环肿瘤细胞 (CTC) 簇存在于转移性强的癌症患者中，导致不良的临床结局。然而，CTC 簇并没有像单个 CTC 那样被广泛研究，其临床应用仍然知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们旨在探索 NanoVelcro 芯片检测神经内分泌肿瘤 (NETs) 中单个 CTC 和 CTC 簇的可行性，同时对其固有特性的微小干扰。我们发现晚期 NET 患者中经常存在 CTC 簇，并研究了它们的潜在作用，以及作为肽受体放射性核素治疗 (PRRT) 后患者反应的新型生物标志物的单个 NET CTC。我们观察到接受 PRRT 的 NET 患者的总 NET CTC 和 NET CTC 簇计数的动态变化与临床结果相关。这些初步发现表明，CTC 簇与单个 CTC 一起，为监测接受 PRRT 的 NET 患者的治疗反应提供了一种潜在的非侵入性选择。
