Molecular signatures of circulating melanoma cells for monitoring early response to immune checkpoint therapy

Abstract

Identifying predictive biomarkers of therapeutic response for melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors is a major challenge. By combining microfluidic enrichment for melanoma circulating tumor cells (CTCs) together with RNA-based droplet digital PCR quantitation, we have established a highly sensitive and robust platform for noninvasive, blood-based monitoring of tumor burden. Serial monitoring of melanoma patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors shows rapid changes in CTC score, which precede standard clinical assessment and are highly predictive of long-term clinical outcome. Early on-treatment digital monitoring of CTC dynamics may thus help identify patients likely to benefit from immune checkpoint inhibition therapy.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Feb 16, 2018
Source ID
10.1073/pnas.1719264115

Entities

People

  • Anita Giobbie-hurder
  • Ben S. Wittner
  • Daniel Haber
  • David T. Miyamoto
  • Donald P. Lawrence
  • Hong Xin
  • John D. Milner
  • Joseph A. Licausi
  • Keith T. Flaherty
  • Kurt Julius Isselbacher
  • Lecia V. Sequist
  • Linda T Nieman
  • Mark Kalinich
  • Mehmet Toner
  • Michael Lawrence
  • Ravi Kapur
  • Ryan J Sullivan
  • Shiwei Pan
  • Shyamala Maheswaran
  • Sridhar Ramaswamy
  • Tanya Todorova Kwan
  • Tianqi Chen
  • Uyen Ho

Organizations

  • Harvard Medical School
  • Howard Hughes Medical Institute
  • National Foundation for Cancer Research
  • National Institutes of Health
  • National Science Foundation
  • Prostate Cancer Foundation
  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Biology
  • Medicine

Readers

  • Molecular and Cellular Biology
  • Oncology and Biomarker-Based Cancer Detection.