A phase three clinical trial has revealed simple blood test can help doctors decide the best way to treat a man with advanced prostate cancer. According to the study, a circulating tumor cell or CTC count can predict which men are likely to respond to standard treatment and live longest and can benefit from more aggressive new drug trials. CTCs are tumour cells that have broken off from a primary tumour and are carried around the body in the blood.
They can be a potential indicator of early cancer metastasis and can precede a clinical cancer diagnosis. Researchers from the USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in California said they have been looked at before for prostate cancer but are found only in later stages. "No one, until now, has looked at whether CTC counts can be used right at the beginning, when a man first presents with metastatic prostate cancer, to tell us whether he's going to live a long time or short time, or whether or not he will progress with therapies," said lead study author Dr.
Amir Goldkorn, associate director of translational sciences at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center in California. Dr. Goldkorn’s team found that men with higher blood levels of CTCs had shorter median survival times and a greater risk of death during the study period.
Their disease could only be controlled by treatment without getting worse for a shorter time. "You couldn't tell these men apart when they walked in the door," Goldkorn said in a USC news release. "All of the.