Circulating Tumor Cells in Bloodstream

The blood test allows us to detect cells, which have left the tumor and entered the bloodstream.

Some of these so-called circulating (epithelial) tumor cells (CETCs / CTCs) may be responsible for metastases (metastatic spread) occurring, and thus responsible for the further progression of the disease.Using the diagnostics to detect and analyze cell count, the extent to which the treatment is proven successful can be monitored. In order to get an accurate assessment, the number of circulating cells is determined before the therapy starts, which are then compared with the number of cells over the course of therapy.

After this assessment is made, the result gives an indication of whether or not the cancer cells are being destroyed by the therapy, i.e. whether or nor the patient is responding to the treatment. If there is an indication that the patient doesn’t respond to the ongoing therapy, there is a possibility of testing what substances can affect the cancer cells and thus the treatment plan could be changed accordingly.

Diagnostics – prior to, during, and after cancer therapy.

This test helps each patient to individually find a unique, personalised, and effective therapy and allows for the success of the therapy to be monitored.

The advantages of circulating tumor cell tests are:

• monitoring of therapy
• testing of medicines in advance
• determination of therapy-relevant properties
• early detection of new tumor activity.

Tests can be employed in the case of almost all solid tumors. Treatment success can be monitored both before therapy starts and over the course of the therapy with diagnostics.

The test may also be applied in metastatic situations, during hormone and maintenance therapies and watch-and-wait approaches (e.g. in cases of prostate cancer or DCIS-type breast cancer).