New possibilities in monitoring patients suffering from castration resistant prostate cancer by using circulating tumor cells
Abstract
Prostate cancer is one of the most common cancers of men in the Czech Republic. Patients who develop advanced stage of the disease called castrate -resistant prostate cancer ( CRPC ) have a very poor prognosis.
Patients with CRPC progresses despite chemical or surgical castration , and most of them died with bone metastases. Due to the ongoing metastatic process we can determine the presence of circulating tumor cells ( CTC ) in the blood of patients.
CTC can therefore be used to monitor the course of disease. This new option in monitoring of CRPC patients should help us to personalize therapy with regard to a wide range of new treatments invented against the prostate cancer.
Currently 19 patients is enroled in this sudy, 12 ofthem had already received and repeated bood withdrawal. In the first blood withdrawal almost 100 % of patients were positive for PSA of which 70% are positive and the other marker (90% PSMA , 10% of EGFR).
In the second withdrawal after the therapy 80 % of patients showed a significant decrease and 35 % from these 80% were evaluated as negative CTC. In contrast, 20% of patients did not show any decrease in marker levels.
Heterogeneity of CTC in patients with CRPC indicates the existence of various subtypes of the disease. Different results after treatment suggest that using CTC , we could identify patients who did not profit from conventional therapy .