Evaluating circulating tumour cell enrichment techniques to establish an appropriate method for clinical application in glioblastomas

Hannah R Barber; Claire M Perks; Kathreena M Kurian

doi:10.3389/fneur.2024.1358531

Evaluating circulating tumour cell enrichment techniques to establish an appropriate method for clinical application in glioblastomas

Front Neurol. 2024 Feb 28:15:1358531. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2024.1358531. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Hannah R Barber^{1

2}, Claire M Perks², Kathreena M Kurian¹

Affiliations

¹ Brain Tumor Research Centre, Bristol Medical School, Translational Health Sciences, Southmead Hospital, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.
² Cancer Endocrinology Group, Bristol Medical School, Translational Health Sciences, Southmead Hospital, University of Bristol, Bristol, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Brain tumours reduce life expectancy for an average of 20 years per patient, the highest of any cancer. A third of brain tumour patients visit their GP at least five times before diagnosis and many of those are diagnosed late through emergency departments. A possible solution to this challenge is to utilise a "liquid biopsy" blood test designed for circulating tumour cells (CTCs). Such a test could be applied at a primary healthcare centre, contributing to informed decision making for diagnostic imaging referrals. Furthermore, it could also be applied at secondary health care centres for the ongoing monitoring of disease recurrence. There is increased interest in CTC enrichment methods as a potential approach for faster diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression. The aim of this review to compare four CTC enrichment methods - OncoQuick^®, Screen Cell^®, pluriBead^® and Cell Search^® - with the objective of identifying a suitable method for application in the clinical setting for the isolation of CTCs from glioblastomas.

Keywords: blood test; brain tumour; circulating tumour cells; enrichment methods; glioblastoma; liquid biopsy.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This study was funded through the June Henry Memorial Fund and David Telling Grant.