Test can find tiny tumor level in blood

[Joan M]

BOSTON - Boston researchers have developed a test that can identify minute amounts of tumor cells floating in the blood of cancer patients, a discovery that could lead to better treatments with fewer side effects.


The technology, invented at Massachusetts General Hospital, uses a microchip scanner no bigger than a business card to analyze a patient's blood, hunting for stray cells shed by tumors. The device is so powerful that it can detect a single cancer cell among 1 billion healthy blood cells.

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2008/07/03/test_can_find_tiny_tumor_level_in_blood/

[BonnieR]

Thanks for that!

[JustwannaBE]

I read that a few weeks ago, however, I don't think that test has been approved by the FDA yet. There is a test, which I just had a few weeks ago, that does determine if there are cancer cells in your blood. It is called a CTC blood test. It was approved by the FDA not too long ago...So anyone out there reading this, tell your oncs you want this test. Mine came back with 0, which means no cancer cells in my blood. My onc was very positive about it, but being the skeptical person that I am, and giving the wierdness of my breat cancer, I told him I wasn't as happy as he was. He will be giving me that test every 3 months, for the next year, as I continue with Herceptin, Tykerb and Avastin. Go out the internet and look up CTC blood tests, there are a couple out there that are being developed but only one that is approved, that is called the CellSearch technology.

[Lani]

that Veridex, the only company that makes Cell Search (marketed by Johnson and Johnson) has declared bankrupcy. Hopefully that will not slow down the speed with which such new technologies become more widespread.

Dr. Hayes quoted the slowness with which the FDA approves new tests and the lengthy clinical trials involved as the reason for why the company went bankrupt.

[Joe]

Actually Veridex bought out a bankrupt partner:

http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2008/06/09/daily20.html

To my knowledge Siemens Diagnostics has the only FDA approved monitoring test for HER2 positive stage IV patients:

http://www.oncogene.com/literature.php


Regards
Joe

[JustwannaBE]

The company that did my CTC test used the CellSearch technology. The name of the company is Genoptix based out of Carlsbad, CA. It is hard to impress me, but this company did impress me as they sent me a letter explaining the billing process, as they are not on every insurance company's plan. I will wait to see their bill, but they assured me that their fees will be based at my current in-network plan, even if they are an out of network provider on my insurance plan.

[Lani]

the Veridex technology called Cell Search by the way is a way of testing circulating tumor cells using magnetic beads coated with EPCAM in a variation of flow cytometry. The Siemens test measures her2 extracellular domain (the part of her2 shed when it is cleaved from the membranous and intracellular domain that remain on the membrane/in the cell) floating around in the serum.

Two different tests looking for two different things.

The Veridex test works for many types of cancer (any that are epithelial in origin) not just her2 and detects whole cells ie, dormant cells? nanometastases? instead of just the cleaved-off part of her2 which is only indicative of her2+ cancers-- breast cancer, some ovarian cancers, a few esophageal cancers etc.

I have not followed this bankrupcy thing...just reporting what I heard at the Era of Hope