Research Update: Harnessing CTCs for Better Cancer Outcomes

Harnessing CTCs for Better Cancer Outcomes David Peng

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) present a major problem for cancer treatment since they cause therapy resistance and metastasis, the main reasons for cancer-related deaths. By creating experimental models based on CTCs, it will be possible to study CTC biology and assess new, effective methods for treating tumors arising from CTCs.

What are circulating tumor cells?

Circulating tumor cells break away from solid tumors and travel through the bloodstream; since they are actual cells from the patient’s tumor, they are regarded as a kind of ‘liquid biopsy’ of the tumor and provide the possibility of evaluating in real time the tumor’s features, its course of development, and its resistance to and response to treatments.

What is Dr. David Peng, Ph.D., who is supported by the NFCR, currently working on?

The use of patients’ circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a variety of solid tumor areas allows patient-derived tumor models to be expanded to develop new therapies and discover potential therapeutic targets for clinical development.

Dr. David H. Peng from the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is working to isolate patient CTCs across multiple solid tumor types to develop CTC-derived models to help with studies intended to find new and effective therapeutic opportunities.

With NFCR support, the scientists used advanced cancer cell diagnostic technology to isolate CTCs from the blood of patients with several solid tumor types, including colorectal and pancreatic cancer. These CTCs were then grown into CTC-derived organoid models, which are miniature versions of tumors grown in a 3D culture. They then implanted these CTC-derived organoids into animal models (also known as PDOX models) to grow CTC-derived tumors in vivo.

So far, Dr. Peng’s team has developed four PDOX models, and molecular analysis of the tumors from three of these models has shown that the PDOX models contain KRASG12C mutations as well as amplifications of CCND1, MDM2, and FGFR3.

This type of molecular characterization of tumors from these PDOX models will enable Dr. Peng’s team to use the models in experiments to identify new drug targets and opportunities for drug repurposing that will ultimately improve patient survival.

Note: This story originally appeared in NFCR’s 2025 Annual Report of Progress and has been modified for an online audience.

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