Target cells
(green) stick to the microarray platform (red). (Photo: Michael Hirtz / KIT)
(November 23, 2015) KIT
Researchers Develop a New Method to Detect Cancer Cells in the Blood before
They Settle in the Tissue and Form a New Tumor.
Many tumors spread: Single cancer cells migrate with blood
flow through the body before they settle in new tissue. In this way, metastases
may be formed, even after the main tumor was treated successfully. It is
difficult to detect cancer cells in the blood at an early stage: About one
malignant cell is encountered per billion of healthy cells. Researchers of KIT
and the Center for Nanotechnology (CeNTech), Münster, have now developed a
clinical method to reliably detect and isolate single cancer cells in blood
samples in cooperation with the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).
“Detection of cancer cells in blood in the early stage of a
disease is difficult, because concentrations of the cancer cells are extremely
small,” Harald Fuchs, Section Head of the KIT Institute of Nanotechnology
(INT), holder of a chair at the Physical Institute of the University of Münster
(WWU), and Scientific Director of the Center for NanoTechnology (CeNTech),
Münster, explains. “We are searching for the needles in the haystack.” The
number of extracted tumor cells allows conclusions to be drawn with respect to
the success of therapy and the future course of the disease. Genetic analysis
of cells allows therapies to be adapted to the type of cancer to be treated.
“With our method, we reach a very high hit rate: More than
85 percent of the extracted cells really are cancer cells,” Michael Hirtz says.
His young investigators group of INT is largely involved in the development
work. “In addition, we can sample suspicious cells undamaged and study them in
more detail.” Medical tests of patient blood samples were carried out by the
team of Klaus Pantel of the University Hospital of Hamburg-Eppendorf. Moreover,
the newly developed method can be transferred to all applications, where rare
cells in blood or other body liquids have to be isolated.