Evidence map›Paper›PMID 31937922›Full record

ArticleBritish journal of cancer2020

Tumour-derived extracellular vesicles in blood of metastatic cancer patients associate with overall survival.

Afroditi Nanou, M Craig Miller, Leonie L Zeune, Sanne de Wit, Cornelis J A Punt, Harry J M Groen, Daniel F Hayes, Johann S de Bono, Leon W M M Terstappen

Open access · hybridAbstract read
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Article in British journal of cancer, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 60 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
60citing papers in PubMed, 4 pooled it
4.6field-weighted citation impact, top 4% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

60 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 79 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Prognostic value of extracellular vesicles in colorectal cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Clinical & translational oncology : official publication of the Federation of Spanish Oncology Societies and of the National Cancer Institute of Mexico · 2025
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  11. Artificial Intelligence for CELLSEARCH Image Analysis.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026
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  15. Connecting the dots: (RANKLTranslational lung cancer research · 2025
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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.

Afroditi NanouDepartment of Medical Cell BioPhysics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. a.nanou@utwente.nl.
M Craig MillerClarifyDx Consulting, Quakertown, PA, USA.
Leonie L ZeuneDepartment of Medical Cell BioPhysics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Sanne de WitDepartment of Medical Cell BioPhysics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Cornelis J A PuntDepartment of Medical Oncology, Academic Medical Center, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Harry J M GroenDepartment of Pulmonary Diseases, University of Groningen and University Medical Centre of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands.
Daniel F HayesDepartment of Internal Medicine, University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.
Johann S de BonoProstate Cancer Targeted Therapy Group, The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
Leon W M M TerstappenDepartment of Medical Cell BioPhysics, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands. l.w.m.m.terstappen@utwente.nl.
University of Twente · NLRoyal Marsden Hospital · GBUniversity of Amsterdam · NLUniversity of Groningen · NLUniversity of Michigan–Ann Arbor · US

Funding

Cancer Research UK
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundCirculating tumour cells (CTCs) in blood associate with overall survival (OS) of cancer patients, but they are detected in extremely low numbers. Large tumour-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs) in castration-resistant prostate cancer (CRPC) patients are present at around 20 times higher frequencies than CTCs and have equivalent prognostic power. In this study, we explored the presence of tdEVs in other cancers and their association with OS.

methodsThe open-source ACCEPT software was used to automatically enumerate tdEVs in digitally stored CellSearch® images obtained from previously reported CTC studies evaluating OS in 190 CRPC, 450 metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC), 179 metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and 137 non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients before the initiation of a new treatment.

resultsPresence of unfavourable CTCs and tdEVs is predictive of OS, with respective hazard ratios (HRs) of 2.4 and 2.2 in CRPC, 2.7 and 2.2 in MBC, 2.3 and 1.9 in mCRC and 2.0 and 2.4 in NSCLC, respectively.

conclusionstdEVs have equivalent prognostic value as CTCs in the investigated metastatic cancers. CRPC, mCRC, and MBC (but not NSCLC) patients with favourable CTC counts can be further prognostically stratified using tdEVs. Our data suggest that tdEVs could be used in clinical decision-making.

Indexed as

AgedAged, 80 and overExtracellular VesiclesFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedNeoplasm MetastasisNeoplasmsNeoplastic Cells, CirculatingSurvival Analysis

Identifiers

PMID31937922
PMCPMC7078322
OpenAlexW2999371904

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.