Abstract

In vivo Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells as Liquid Biopsy – Overview of Potential Applications as Companion Diagnostic for Target Therapies

Klaus Lücke, CEO & Founder, GILUPI GmbH

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are a promising surrogate marker for disease progression and response to therapy as they can be used as liquid biopsy. CTCs indicate tumor cell extravasation. They are important prerequisites for formation of metastasis. Early disease diagnosis as well as disease monitoring can be provided by the detection and characterization of these rare cells. The GILUPI CellCollector™ offers medical personnel at any point-of-care with the unique opportunity to enrich CTCs in vivo.  Primary goal was to demonstrate isolation of CTCs in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), breast cancer (BC), colorectal cancer (CRC) and prostate cancer (PC) patients by using this in vivo medical device and to compare it to the CELLSEARCH® method.

The GILUPI CellCollector™ technology overcomes present limitations in CTC enrichment with an increased detection rate of more than 64%. Future implementation into clinical practice may improve early detection, prognosis and therapy monitoring of cancer patients. Besides enumeration, captured CTCs are ready for molecular characterization and will help to establish more personalized treatment regiments since knowledge of the molecular make-up of the cancer cells to be defeated is an indispensable prerequisite to use targeted therapies efficiently.