Title:Mapping cancer cells

Among the many challenges of effective cancer treatment is the need to monitor the cancer itself. Keeping track of cancer cells as they grow, and hopefully as they die off, may be inexact, too infrequent, and expensive for patients.

A group of GUMC researchers wants to change that. Faculty and students from Biomedical Graduate Education programs, the School of Medicine, and Georgetown University’s Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center are developing a new technique that could revolutionize the way cancers are tracked and treated. Instead of invasive surgical biopsies or time-consuming scans, clinicians could use simple blood tests to determine where the cancer is and whether it is responding to treatment.

“From a blood sample, we think you can detect much earlier whether a drug works,” said Anton Wellstein, an oncology and pharmacology professor who is leading the research. “We also see the side effects the drug has at the same time.”

At Georgetown, the researchers are working with the technology of liquid biopsy, which involves examining normal and cancer cell DNA in the bloodstream. They are compiling a “map” of cell types that can be used to tell which organs that cancerous DNA is coming from—providing a clearer picture that can guide rapid, personalized treatment.