Fluorescence in situ hybridization analysis of circulating tumor cells in metastatic prostate cancer.

Journal article

PURPOSE: To assess the feasibility of characterizing gene copy number alteration by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) of circulating tumor cells (CTC) isolated using the CellSearch system in patients with progressive castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN: We used probe combinations that included the androgen receptor (AR) and MYC genes for FISH analysis of CTC samples collected from 77 men with castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer. RESULTS: High-level chromosomal amplification of AR was detected in 38% and relative gain of MYC in 56% of samples analyzed. No such abnormalities were detected in samples with CTC counts of <10, reflecting ascertainment difficulty in these lower count samples. CONCLUSION: The CTC isolated from our patient cohort present a very similar molecular cytogenetic profile to that reported for late-stage tumors and show that FISH analysis of CTC can be a valuable, noninvasive surrogate for routine tumor profiling. That as many as 50% of these patients have substantial amplification of the AR locus indicates that androgen signaling continues to play an important role in late-stage prostate cancer.

Authors: Leversha, M; Han, J; Asgari, Z; Danila, D; Lin, O

• Journal: Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 6
• Pages: 2091-2097
• Publication date: 2009-03-01
• DOI: 10.1158/1078-0432.ccr-08-2036
• EISSN: 1557-3265
• ISSN: 1078-0432
• Language: English
• Keywords: Receptors, Androgen; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; In Situ Hybridization, Fluorescence; Genes, myc; Male; Gene Dosage; Humans; Prostatic Neoplasms