Giving prostate cancer patients regular blood tests could drastically improve their survival rates, study claims
- Blood tests could detect whether patient is resistant to commonly-used drug
- This could allow them to switch the patient to other drugs to treat their cancer
- Scientists took blood samples from 56 patients with advanced prostate cancer
Regular blood tests for prostate cancer patients could significantly improve their chances of long-term survival, new research suggests.
Having blood tests before and during chemotherapy could help doctors detect whether or not their patient is resistant or developing resistance to docetaxel – a commonly-used drug.
This could allow them to switch the patient to other drugs to treat their cancer, without the need for painful biopsies.
Men with prostate cancer that has started to spread to other parts of the body are often treated with docetaxel, a chemotherapy that can significantly improve survival.
Having blood tests before and during chemotherapy could help doctors detect whether or not their patient is resistant or developing resistance to docetaxel – a commonly-used drug
As part of the new study researchers at Barts Cancer Institute at Queen Mary University of London looked at markers of cancer in the blood known as circulating tumour cells (CTCs).
CTCs are cancer cells that have entered the bloodstream from either the original cancer site or from tumours around the body where the cancer has spread.
The scientists took blood samples from 56 patients with advanced prostate cancer who were being treated at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.
The samples were taken over six to eight months and covered the time before the patients started docetaxel treatment, after their first dose of chemotherapy, before their fifth dose and once they had finished all doses.
Specifically, they looked for patterns in the data from men who had responded to the treatment and those who did not, and whose cancer further advanced and at what speed.
Results revealed among men who had more than six CTCs detected per 7.5ml of blood before their second chemotherapy dose, their disease was more likely to recur or progress within three months and they were more likely to die within 18 months.
On the other hand, men who had fewer than six CTCs per 7.5ml of blood were likely to survive for 17 months without their cancer progressing and had an overall survival time of three years.
High numbers of CTCs towards the end of treatment also indicated that men were more likely to see a rapid spread of their cancer and an earlier death.
Caitlin Davies, who led the study, said: ‘Using these patterns, we can apply them to future patients with the goal to predict whether they will respond to therapy and pre-emptively decide on the best course of action that will have maximal benefit.
‘For instance, an increase in CTC numbers may indicate a lack of response to treatment.
‘Furthermore, by monitoring the appearance of potentially drug-resistant CTCs, we can change treatment tactics early on and in a patient-personalised and timely manner.’
Tissue biopsies are currently used to indicate how aggressive prostate cancer might be, and how likely it is to spread to other parts of the body. However these can be painful, and results can take up to 10 days.
However testing for CTCs in blood samples, also known as a liquid biopsy, is painless and easily repeatable, with results within two to three days.
The scientists are now looking at how a clinical trial in patients could help them validate their findings, which were presented at the National Cancer Research Institute festival.
Hashim Ahmed, chair of the NCRI prostate group and professor of urology at Imperial College London, said: ‘These are promising results and have the potential to change clinical practice, if they are confirmed by further research.
‘Assessing the responsiveness of an individual patient’s tumour to docetaxel treatment by means of blood tests will enable clinicians to personalise cancer treatment more easily and effectively, without the patient having to undergo invasive procedures such as tissue biopsies.
‘It could also help to avoid patients undergoing unpleasant systemic treatments that are going to be unsuccessful.’
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