We're All in This Together
So here’s the promise. I’ve written before about circulating tumor cells (CTCs), and blood biopsies, as many of us in the cancer research community continue to see tremendous opportunities. Currently, the most immediate applications for CTC technology are likely to be the genotyping of cancers for which mutation-targeted therapies are effective. According to a paper published in Cancer Discovery , Drs. Daniel A. Haber and Victor E. Velculescu hypothesize that these will involve “predominantly the approved indications for non–small cell lung cancer ( EGFR and EML4–ALK mutations) and melanoma (BRAF), as well as upcoming applications for BRAF + EGFR–directed therapies in colorectal cancer and PIK3CA - targeted treatments in breast cancer and other cancers.” Further, “these applications are likely to increase as additional genotype-driven therapies are developed, and though they constitute a small subset of all cancers, broad testing even in cases at relatively low risk is impor