PICTURES

PICTURES aimed to obtain enough Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) to fully characterize the tumor of patients with metastatic castration-naïve prostate cancer (mHSPC). To obtain the goals new technology is needed and existing technology from Menarini and VyCAP will be used or expanded upon. 

The advancement towards personalized therapy for cancer patients is accompanied by the urgent need for real time tumor characterization to probe the presence of treatment targets. Tumor characterization through probing CTC holds this promise. 

In PICTURES 160 patients were screened for the presence of CTC. 56 had more than 3 CTCs in 7.5 ml of blood and in 38 of these patients a Diagnostic Leukapheresis (DLA) was performed. Procedures were developed by the UT startup FETCH to isolate CTC from the DLA from Erasmus mHSPC patients. The UT and Erasmus laboratories demonstrated the feasibility for single cell genetic profiling, the quantification of the treatment target PSMA and the measurement of PSA secreted by the CTC. PSMA expression was evaluated in the 160 patients and PSA secretion in 38 of the patients. Analysis of the genetic profiles of individual CTC are ongoing and will be further expanded.  A longer follow-up of the patients that participated in PICTURES is needed to determine relationships with clinical findings and will be conducted at Erasmus.