Tumor-selective replication herpes simplex virus-based technology significantly improves clinical detection and prognostication of viable circulating tumor cells.

ABSTRACT: Detection of circulating tumor cells remains a significant challenge due to their vast physical and biological heterogeneity. We developed a cell-surface-marker-independent technology based on telomerase-specific, replication-selective oncolytic herpes-simplex-virus-1 that targets telomerase-reverse-transcriptase-positive cancer cells and expresses green-fluorescent-protein that identifies viable CTCs from a broad spectrum of malignancies. Our method recovered 75.5-87.2% of tumor cells spiked into healthy donor blood, as validated by different methods, including single cell sequencing. CTCs were detected in 59-100% of 326 blood samples from patients with 6 different solid organ carcinomas and lymphomas. Significantly, CTC-positive rates increased remarkably with tumor progression from N0M0

SUBMITTER: Zhang W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5129969 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature