Download 1051206Abstract

NanoVelcro CTC Assays for Detection and Characterization of Circulating
Tumor Cells – Towards Non-Invasive Cancer Diagnostics
Tseng, Hsian-Rong
Professor Tseng’s research team is on a mission to make dramatic improvements
in cancer patient quality of life through its patented high sensitivity liquid biopsy
nanotechnology for cancer detection and monitoring. In a partnership with UCLA Health
Systems and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center (CSMC), the team has been developing its
proprietary NanoVelcro CTC Assays for highly sensitive enumeration and molecular
characterization of CTCs in prostate cancer, hepatocellular carcinoma, pancreatic cancer,
and other solid tumors. Through a long-standing collaboration with the Urologic Oncology
Program of the Samuel Oschin Comprehensive Cancer Institute at CSMC, the collaborative
team identified a subpopulation of CTCs morphologically defined by distinctly smaller
nuclei, named very-small-nuclear CTCs (vsnCTCs). The presence of vsnCTCs is strongly
associated with the visceral metastasis in prostate cancer, a clinical event tied to aggressive
biology and extremely short survival. With the UCLA Surgery Program, the joint team
has been exploring the use of CTC enumeration for diagnosis and staging of hepatocellular
carcinoma and pancreatic cancer, and evaluating its promise to guide the selection of
patients for curative liver transplantation and pancreatectomy, respectively. CytoLumina
Technologies Corp. is a biotechnology company spun-out from Professor Tseng’s lab at
UCLA Medical School. CytoLumina is honored to contribute to the White House Cancer
Moonshot program, in pursuit of accelerating blood profiling diagnostic technologies for
the benefit of patient quality of life. Under Professor Tseng’s leadership, CytoLumina has
been seeking for research and clinical partners world-wide in order to further broaden the
impact of NanoVelcro CTC Assays.