maintrac circulating tumor cells

Circulating Tumor Cells are cells the tumor releases into the bloos stream as soon as it is connected. This is already by a size of 1 square mm, like a pinhead.
Even if the tumor itself is removed or shrunk, there are most likely still tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream. Those cells are to be killed by chemotherapy.
maintrac monitors cancer therapies by taking a blood sample of only 15 ml every now and then, analyzing the number of circulating tumor cells in that sample and telling whether the circulating tumor cells are killd by the therapy - or not.
With maintrac, we count the number of epithelial cells in the blood sample of a patient by staining with fluorescense. By adding another staining fluorid which colors the nucleus of cells which are already dying, we can differenciate between life and dead cells.
Data from over 15 years of monitoring shows that patients with decreasing numers of circulating tumor cells have a much longer relapse free survival (8.8 years) than those with increasting circulating tumor cells despite of therapy (1.004 years).

in case of increasing circulating tumor cell numbers despite of therapy, a change of therapy should be considered.

[dr.martinburow]

Eine echt gute Methode. Weltweit wohl die beste, um den quantitativen Verlauf von Tumorzellen zu verfolgen und die Behandlungen entsprechend anzupassen.