Earlier this year, the New York Times published an article on follow-up of solid cancers with blood test, a method sometimes referred to as “liquid biopsy.” In that article, noted NYT science reporter Andrew Pollack wrote: “For all the potential of liquid biopsies, however, the developers of such tests for the most part have not yet established their accuracy and, more important, their usefulness. Does blood testing really help patients?”
Today, after more than 15 years of research, Rarecells can definitively answer Mr. Pollack’s question: the answer is “Yes!”
The study “Sentinel Circulating Tumor Cells Allow early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease” was just published in the Public Library of Science (PLOS) ONE open-access journal. Not only were asymptomatic lung-cancer patients diagnosed using CTCs detected by ISET by Rarecells test, this very early diagnosis allowed for rapid surgical intervention to remove these tiny tumors when they first became visible on CT-scan. This is the first study to demonstrate successful early treatment due to cancer sentinel cell detection by ISET by Rarecells test.
There are 12 million COPD patients in the U.S. and many live constant fear of lung cancer, which is the most lethal cancer in America today. According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths among both American men and women. Lung cancer is responsible for 28% of all cancer fatalities in the U.S. each year. There were approximately 228,190 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed in the U.S. in 2013. According to the ACS, when all stages of lung cancer are combined, the 1-year survival rate is 44% and the 5-year survival rate drops to 16%. Only 15% of lung cancers are currently diagnosed at the localized stage, or Stage I.
If caught in the early stages of growth, most lung cancers are quite treatable. However, the disease takes root, grows and spreads throughout the body very silently. There are usually no symptoms or non-specific symptoms while the tumor is localized in the lungs. But, as we discussed in this blog last week, those tiny tumors are shedding tumor cells into the blood stream, which go on to colonize other organs and tissues. Finding these circulating cells can both prevent metastasis and allow for detection of the primary tumor long before obvious symptoms would first appear.
That is exactly what happened in this latest study, conducted by Paul Hofman, MD, PhD, Head of Laboratory of Clinical and Experimental Pathology at IRCAN (Institute for Research on Cancer and Aging) and the Pasteur Hospital in Nice, France.
In the study 245 people, including 168 COPD patients, 42 smokers and 35 non-smokers, had their blood drawn and tested using ISET by Rarecells. Circulating tumor cells were found in 5 or 3% of the COPD patients. As a result of this early recognition, these 5 patients were closely monitored. 1-5 years after CCC detection (CTC validated by cytopathological analysis by ISET), the tumor became visible by CT-scan showing nodules. In all 5, these tumor nodules were surgically at a very early stage thanks to the ISET test.
Without ISET by Rarecells, these tumors would have grown in a silent manner. More than one year after surgery (16 months), there was no tumor recurrence in these 5 patients. They seem completely cured.
“Sentinel Circulating Cancer Cells (CCC), detected by the ISET by Rarecells test, allow early Diagnosis of Lung Cancer in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease” is a landmark study that demonstrates that the detection of circulating tumor cells can lead to early diagnosis and successful treatment of cancers that would have gone unnoticed for years.