Förbättrad möjlighet att skräddarsy systembehandling för bröstcancer genom analys av cirkulerande tumörcellers molekylära egenskaper

The aim of the present research program is to improve prognosis in metastatic breast cancer by development of techniques for characterizing molecular portraits of CTCs to tailor systemic therapy in personalized medicine. This approach utilizes an academic study with serial blood sampling where characteristics of CTCs alone and along with information from primary tumors and metastases will provide insight into tumor progression and the acquirement of treatment resistance in relation to specific systemic treatments. The study design gives added scientific value to published protocols by exclusively including patients with their first recurrence for evaluation by serial blood sampling at pre-defined time-points through several lines of systemic treatment. Since a significant fraction of patients with breast cancer change inherence from the primary tumor to CTCs and distant metastasis, a more comprehensive molecular mapping including CTCs may provide an improved diagnostic tool for selection of systemic therapy in the neoadjuvant and metastatic setting. Capturing and characterization of CTCs has the potential to add important information about the metastatic process in both early and advanced breast cancer.