Project description:RNA profiles in serum and urine extracellular vesicles of patients with cholangiocarcinoma mimicking tumor expression: novel liquid biopsy approach
Project description:PEGASUS is a prospective multi-centric study designed to prove the feasibility of using liquid biopsy to guide the post-surgical and post-adjuvant clinical management in 140 microsatellite stable Stage-III and T4N0 Stage-II colon cancer patients.
Project description:Pre-analytical factors affecting the establishment of a single tube assay for multi-parameter liquid biopsy detection in melanoma patients
Project description:Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) represents a heterogeneous group of biliary cancers with poor prognosis. Although the aetiology is generally unknown, factors like Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis (PSC) predispose to its development. Simultaneously, around 80% of patients with PSC have concomitant Ulcerative Colitis (UC). As there are no specific and sensitive biomarkers for the non-invasive diagnosis of CCA, we aimed to analyse the RNA content of serum and urine extracellular vesicles (EVs) to find accurate biomarkers of CCA that could be reflecting tumor behaviour. The transcriptomic analysis of these EVs showed a differential profile of RNAs in patients with CCA compared to healthy individuals or patients with other diseases (PSC and UC), presenting some RNAs high diagnostic values to distinguish patients with CCA. Moreover, the differential abundance of several RNAs in serum and/or urine EVs correlated with the deregulated expression of those transcripts in CCA tissue compared to surrounding liver (TCGA and Copenhagen cohorts), in tumor (EGI1, TFK1) and normal cholangiocyte (NHC) cell lines as well as in EVs secreted by those cell lines; pinpointing the potential involvement of those RNAs not only as liquid biopsy biomarkers but also as potential mediators of CCA pathogenesis.
Project description:Colorectal cancer (CRC) is among the most preventable cancers when precancerous lesions are detected at an early stage. Current screening methods for CRC require bowel prep or stool-based testing that are inconvenient, resulting in low compliance. Stool based tests have limited sensitivity for the detection of precancerous lesions.
The CMx platform has been showed to be able to the detection of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in high sensitivity and specificity. In published studies, circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) are captured and quantified in advanced-stages of colorectal cancer. In order to detect early and pre-cancer circulating tumor cells, we have developed an Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform that improves the detection of CTCs in early cancer stages. Therefore, this study goals are: 1) to establish a standard detection process utilizing the Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform. 2) Parallel comparison of laboratory manual operation and Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform. 3) Verify the feasibility of use of an Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform in the clinical setting.
Project description:Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) encompass multiple analytes, interrogated by sampling blood from patients with cancer. However, the clinical utility of tumor cell-based liquid biopsy has proven to be limited since CTCs are rare, and current technologies cannot process larger blood volumes required to isolate a sufficient number of tumor cells. We have described a high-throughput microfluidic prototype utilizing high-flow channels and amplification of cell sorting forces through magnetic lenses. Here, we apply this technology to analyze patient-derived leukapheresis products, interrogating a mean blood volume of 5.83 liters from patients with metastatic cancer and achieving a median of 2,799 CTCs per patient. Isolation of many CTCs from individual patients enables characterization of their morphological and molecular heterogeneity, including cell and nuclear size and RNA expression. It also allows robust detection of gene copy number variation (CNV), a definitive cancer marker with potential diagnostic applications. High-volume microfluidic enrichment of CTCs constitutes a new dimension in liquid biopsies.