Detection of CTCs in Patients Undergoing Surgery for Stage IV Colorectal Cancer
Public ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01722903. Field values are reproduced from the official study page; the official ClinicalTrials.gov record remains the source of truth for eligibility, enrollment, and contact information.
Data is sourced from official ClinicalTrials.gov public API records. Always review the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for the latest information.
Official title
Perioperative Detection and Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells in Patients Undergoing Colorectal Cancer Liver and Lung Metastasectomy
Brief summary
Reproduced verbatim from the official ClinicalTrials.gov record. Not medical advice.
Colorectal cancer (CRC) is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. About 90% of CRC related deaths are due to metastatic spread-mostly to the liver and lungs. With adequate multidisciplinary patient selection, CRC liver and lung metastasectomy significantly improves survival and offers the best chance for a cure. However, patients with limited lung or liver metastases are clinically underserved and poorly scientifically studied. The individual indication for resection and the decision making for adjuvant systemic therapies remains a challenge. More sensitive techniques to detect occult disease are needed for metastatic CRC (mCRC) patients, and perioperative analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may provide an outstanding opportunity to develop such innovative methods. We hypothesize that CTCs are enriched during CRC liver and/or lung metastasectomy, and that they can be isolated and characterized in an attempt to identify novel therapeutic targets. CTCs are believed to be causing metastasis and may provide a non-invasive alternative to organ biopsies for the detection, characterization and monitoring of solid cancers. CTC numbers have been shown to be a strong predictor of Progression Free Survival and Overall Survival for mCRC patients. The CellSearch system (Veridex LLC, Ratinas, NJ, USA) currently is the only FDA approved test for the evaluation of CTC numbers in metastatic breast, prostate and colorectal cancer. However, the rarity of CTCs in the blood leads to limited capture efficiency and the CellSearch system fixes cells, preventing further molecular characterization of CTCs by functional assays and primary cell culture. In this protocol the CellSearch system will be compared to a new technology, called the Flexible Micro Spring Array (FMSA) device, developed by Dr. Zheng, Department of Bioengineering, Penn State University, University Park. This novel approach enables size-exclusion based filtration for viable CTC enrichment. The FMSA device is inexpensive, works rapidly, and retains viable CTCs for further biological study. Using both the CellSearch system and the FMSA device, we will determine the kinetics of CTC shedding into circulation, develop an effective system for isolation, enumeration, and further enrichment CTCs, and use this system to find characteristics of different CTC populations.
Study identification
- NCT ID
- NCT01722903
- Recruitment status
- Completed
- Study type
- Observational
- Phase
- Not listed
- Enrollment
- 25 participants
Conditions and interventions
Interventions
Not listed
Eligibility (public fields only)
- Age range
- 18 Years and older
- Sex
- All
- Healthy volunteers
- Healthy volunteers not accepted
This page does not interpret eligibility. Detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria are on the official ClinicalTrials.gov record.
Study timeline
- Start date
- Jul 31, 2012
- Primary completion
- Apr 30, 2013
- Completion
- May 31, 2015
- Last update posted
- Sep 12, 2016
2012 – 2015
United States locations
- U.S. sites
- 1
- U.S. states
- 1
- U.S. cities
- 1
| Facility | City | State | ZIP | Site status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MS Hershey Medical Center | Hershey | Pennsylvania | 17033 | — |
Site contact phone numbers, emails, and investigator names are intentionally not displayed here. Open the official ClinicalTrials.gov record for site contact information.
About this trial record page
- What this page shows
- Public field values for ClinicalTrials.gov record NCT01722903, including study identification, conditions, interventions, eligibility (age, sex, healthy volunteer), timeline, and U.S. site list.
- What this page does not do
- No medical advice, eligibility judgments, treatment recommendations, study quality scoring, or AI-generated medical summaries. No site contact phone numbers, emails, or investigator names.
- Where the data comes from
- Sourced from the official ClinicalTrials.gov public API. The official record is the source of truth.
- Last refresh
- Last update posted Sep 12, 2016 · Synced Sep 20, 2026
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Open the official record
The complete protocol, eligibility criteria, and contact information for NCT01722903 live on ClinicalTrials.gov.