Dr. Elemento on Utilizing Circulating Tumor Cells to Assess Treatment Resistance in mCRPC

Olivier Elemento, PhD, professor, Physiology and Biophysics, Walter B. Wriston Research Scholar, professor, Computational Genomics, Computational Biomedicine, associate director, the Institute for Computational Biomedicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, Physiology and Biophysics, director, the Englander Institute, Precision Medicine Associate, director, the Institute for Computational Biomedicine, discusses utilizing circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to assess treatment resistance in metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

The detection of an inflammatory response signature in CTCs was found to be associated with acquired antiandrogen resistance, Elemento says. Moreover, examining the transcriptome of immune cells in the blood showed that an enrichment of gene signatures, such as the inflammasome gene signature, served as another indicator of progression, Elemento explains

The detection and change of these signatures at various points of disease can help predict progression, making it important to evaluate these signatures at diagnosis, Elemento continues. This research could help indicate if a change in expression of gene signatures are correlated with progression, which could assist in preventing progression in the future, Elemento continues. Leveraging CTCs at baseline could serve as an earlier indicator of which patients are more likely to progress, and these data could drive treatment decisions in patients to potentially prevent progression, Elemento concludes.