Abstract

ISET: A New Approach for the Follow-Up and Early Diagnosis of Invasive Cancers

Patrizia Paterlini-Brechot, Professor of Oncology/Molecular Biology, University Paris Descartes

Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) and Circulating Tumor Microemboli (CTM) are Circulating Rare Cells which herald tumor invasion and are expected to provide an opportunity to improve the management of cancer patients and help to detect the most aggressive invasive cancers before other diagnostic approaches like imaging. An important issue in the CTC field is how to obtain highly sensitive and unbiased collection of these fragile and heterogeneous cells for their diagnosis and molecular study when they are extremely rare, particularly at the beginning of the invasion process. We report on the  ISET® (Isolation by SizE of Tumor/Trophoblastic Cells) open system for marker-independent isolation of tumor cells from blood. ISET® allows to reliably diagnose and count CTC with unparalleled sensitivity and specificity. Independent published data from different research teams have demonstrated the superior clinical sensitivity and specificity of ISET®. They have also demonstrated the prognostic relevance of CTC detection by ISET® in patients with melanomas, as well as lung, colorectal, liver,  pancreatic, head and neck, and ovarian cancers. Furthermore, the utility of theranostic characterization of CTC by ISET® has been demonstrated for non-small-cell lung cancers, castration-resistant prostate cancers, colorectal cancers, hepatocellular carcinomas  and melanomas.