A quantitative perspective on surface marker selection for the isolation of functional tumor cells: Supplementary issue: Breast cancer detection and screening

Calvin F. Cahall, Jacob L. Lilly, Edward A. Hirschowitz, Brad J. Berron

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

21 Scopus citations

Abstract

Much effort has gone into developing fluid biopsies of patient peripheral blood for the monitoring of metastatic cancers. One common approach is to isolate and analyze tumor cells in the peripheral blood. Widespread clinical implementation of this approach has been hindered by the current choice of targeting epithelial markers known to be highly variable in primary tumor sites. Here, we review current antigen-based tumor cell isolation strategies and offer biological context for commonly studied cancer surface markers. Expression levels of the most common markers are quantitated for three breast cancer and two non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) lineage models. These levels are contrasted with that present on healthy peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) for comparison to expected background levels in a fluid biopsy setting. A key feature of this work is establishing a metric of markers per square micrometer. This describes an average marker density on the cell membrane surface, which is a critical metric for emerging isolation strategies. These results serve to extend expression of key tumor markers in a sensitive and dynamic manner beyond traditional positive/negative immunohistochemical staining to guide future fluid biopsy targeting strategies.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-11
Number of pages11
JournalBreast Cancer: Basic and Clinical Research
Volume9
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 30 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© the authors, publisher and licensee Libertas Academica Limited.

Keywords

  • Breast cancer
  • Cancer lines
  • Cell sorting
  • Fluid biopsy
  • Immunostaining

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Oncology
  • Cancer Research

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