ArticleBMC cancer2016
An 8-gene mRNA expression profile in circulating tumor cells predicts response to aromatase inhibitors in metastatic breast cancer patients.
Article in BMC cancer, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.
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Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- Trastuzumab and first-line taxane chemotherapy in metastatic breast cancer patients with a HER2-negative tumor and HER2-positive circulating tumor cells: a phase II trial.Breast cancer research and treatment · 2024Trial
- Circulating Tumor Cells Enhance Prognostic Stratification Beyond ER Assessment by Biopsy or FES-PET in Endocrine-Treated Metastatic Breast Cancer.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Brain structural alterations and cognitive dysfunction in lung cancer patients without brain metastasis.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Review
- Signatures of Breast Cancer Progression in the Blood: What Could Be Learned from Circulating Tumor Cell Transcriptomes.Cancers · 2022Review
- Breast cancer circulating tumor cells with mesenchymal features-an unreachable target?Cellular and molecular life sciences : CMLS · 2022Review
- RNA-Based CTC Analysis Provides Prognostic Information in Metastatic Breast Cancer.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Article
- Prospective Evaluation of a Circulating Tumor Cell Sensitivity Profile to Predict Response to Cisplatin Chemotherapy in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients.Frontiers in oncology · 2021Article
- Circulating Tumor Cells in Early and Advanced Breast Cancer; Biology and Prognostic Value.International journal of molecular sciences · 2020Review
- Cell-Free DNA Variant Sequencing Using CTC-Depleted Blood for Comprehensive Liquid Biopsy Testing in Metastatic Breast Cancer.Cancers · 2019Article
- Network-guided prediction of aromatase inhibitor response in breast cancer.PLoS computational biology · 2019Article
- Liquid biopsies in myeloid malignancies.Cancer drug resistance (Alhambra, Calif.) · 2019Review
- An Optimized Workflow to Evaluate Estrogen Receptor Gene Mutations in Small Amounts of Cell-Free DNA.The Journal of molecular diagnostics : JMD · 2019Article
- Estrogen receptor mutations and splice variants determined in liquid biopsies from metastatic breast cancer patients.Molecular oncology · 2018Article
- Correlation between the presence of circulating tumor cells and the pathologic type and staging of non-small cell lung cancer during the early postoperative period.Oncology letters · 2017Article
- The promise of circulating tumor cells for precision cancer therapy.Biomarkers in medicine · 2016Review
- Prognostic Impact of HER2 and ER Status of Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients with a HER2-Negative Primary Tumor.Neoplasia (New York, N.Y.) · 2016Article
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Authors and funding
20 authors at 5 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMolecular characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTC) is promising for personalized medicine. We aimed to identify a CTC gene expression profile predicting outcome to first-line aromatase inhibitors in metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients.
methodsCTCs were isolated from 78 MBC patients before treatment start. mRNA expression levels of 96 genes were measured by quantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction. After applying predefined exclusion criteria based on lack of sufficient RNA quality and/or quantity, the data from 45 patients were used to construct a gene expression profile to predict poor responding patients, defined as disease progression or death <9 months, by a leave-one-out cross validation.
resultsOf the 45 patients, 19 were clinically classified as poor responders. To identify them, the 75% most variable genes were used to select genes differentially expressed between good and poor responders. An 8-gene CTC predictor was significantly associated with outcome (Hazard Ratio [HR] 4.40, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 2.17-8.92, P < 0.001). This predictor identified poor responding patients with a sensitivity of 63% and a positive predictive value of 75%, while good responding patients were correctly predicted in 85% of the cases. In multivariate Cox regression analysis, including CTC count at baseline, the 8-gene CTC predictor was the only factor independently associated with outcome (HR 4.59 [95% CI: 2.11-9.56], P < 0.001). This 8-gene signature was not associated with outcome in a group of 71 MBC patients treated with systemic treatments other than AI.
conclusionsAn 8-gene CTC predictor was identified which discriminates good and poor outcome to first-line aromatase inhibitors in MBC patients. Although results need to be validated, this study underscores the potential of molecular characterization of CTCs.
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