Digital circulating tumor cell analyses for prostate cancer precision oncology

Abstract

In this issue of Cancer Discovery, Miyamoto and colleagues adapted their microfluidic CTC-iChip isolation platform with a digital RNA-PCR readout for eight prostate-specific transcripts and two assays for the androgen receptor mRNA splice variant ARV7 and the TMPRSS2–ERG translocation transcript. In patients with metastatic castrate-resistant prostate cancer at initiating abiraterone therapy in a first-line setting, the resulting RNA-based digital circulating tumor cell signatures identified patients with a shorter overall survival, and in patients with clinically localized disease, the signatures identified those with seminal vesicle invasion and pelvic lymph node involvement.