Kit to predict metastatic colorectal cancer treatment

Miguel Abal Posada

Fundación Ramón Domínguez, Spain

Research

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), proposed as major players in cancer dissemination, have demonstrated clinical prognostic significance in several cancer types. PrediCTC kit provides an analysis tool that determines the level of expression of a panel of biomarkers of CTC that, in addition to prognosis, permits the assessment of therapy response in mCRC, the fourth leading cancer-related death cause worldwide.

Aim

To improve the management and outcome of CRC patients, offering them the sooner the most effective therapy. To clinically validate a new technology which combines a simple, rapid, sensitive and userfriendly CTC isolation tool with a novel panel of biomarkers for the prognosis of mCRC.

Problem to Solve

Colorectal cancer (CRC) represents the fourth leading cancer-related death cause worldwide, with almost 1.4 million new cases each year (9.7 % of the total global cancer cases). Only in Europe, it is the second most common cancer with more than diagnosed 470,000 citizens and 228,000 deaths every year.

The prime factor in the adverse prognosis of CRC patients is the metastatic process by which cancer spreads to other parts of the body, leading to metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) disease, with a more complex therapeutic approach and being associated with a dramatic drop in survival rates. From a clinical perspective, the evaluation of treatment response has to be done as soon as possible.

Innovation

PrediCTC effectively classifies responding and nonresponding mCRC patients after only one chemotherapy cycle allowing the reduction of overtreatment and the selection of a more effective therapy, with the aim of increasing patient survival as well as savings in the healthcare system. It is a noninvasive and economic clinical tool that could ameliorate the sensitivity of routine imaging methods for the evaluation of therapy response and could be used as complementary information support related to therapeutic decisions. These main hallmarks of PrediCTC represent a more efficient management of patients with a more precise, less invasive and earlier evidence of response to treatment.

The consequence for the patient is the earlier selection of the appropriate treatment, with better response and less secondary adverse effects associated with inadequate chemotherapies; the consequence for the oncologist is the accessibility to a more reliable tool for the monitoring of patients and correct clinical decisions; the consequence for the health systems is a more cost effective prediction test and a reduction in the costs associated with inefficient chemotherapies and secondary effects.

Level of Innovation

The current gold standard for assessing mCRC disease, and for defining treatment response, is based on specific response evaluation criteria by imaging techniques. However, current imaging techniques using computed tomography or CT (imaging method that uses x-rays to create pictures of cross-sections of the body) have several limitations. The main values of PrediCTC compared to CT, in addition to the routine accessibility to a minimally invasive peripheral blood sample refer to the earlier and reliable prediction of response (assessment in 4 weeks).

CTCs quantification has shown to be a prognostic factor in different tumor types including CRC. In mCRC it has been reported that the presence of 3 or more CTCs per 7.5ml of blood predicted poor patient outcome. PrediCTC is the first kit that reports the combination of CTCs markers for mCRC patients having a potential value as a tool for early therapy response monitoring, for better prognosis and prediction of the disease.