Circulating Tumor Cells Can Reveal Genetic Signature of
Dangerous Lung Cancers Using a miniature laboratory-on-a-chip
device, a team of investigators at the Massachusetts General
Hospital, led by Daniel Haber, M.D., Ph.D., and Mehmet Toner,
Ph.D., both members of the MIT-Harvard Center for Cancer
Nanotechnology Excellence (CCNE), has developed a method that
detects and analyzes the genetic signature of rare tumor cells
in the bloodstream. The results from this analysis allowed the
researchers to identify those patients most likely to respond to
a specific targeted treatment. This chip-based analysis also
allowed the researchers to monitor genetic changes that occur
during therapy. According to Dr. Haber, this chip opens up a new
field of studying tumors in real time. “When the device is ready
for larger clinical trials, it should give us new options for
measuring treatment response, defining prognostic and predictive
measures, and studying the biology of blood-borne metastasis,
which is the primary method by