Abstract

Development of Target Expression Assays in NSCLC Tumors and the CTC Compartment

Steven Pirie-Shepherd, Director, Pfizer Inc

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a common focus of research, in part due to their relatively simple and non-invasive means of collection and their potential utility as biomarkers in cancer.  They may also be studied to help further understand the metastatic process. In this presentation, we discuss development of an IHC assay to detect target expression in NSCLC tumors and an immunofluorescence assay to detect target expression in CTCs.  We used these assays to profile matched samples obtained from treatment naïve NSCLC patients. We present data characterizing CTC enumeration as well as the detection and relative expression of target in CTCs and tumors from NSCLC patients and discuss the correlations between the presence of the target in CTCs and matched tumor resections.