Abstract 1560: Real-time monitoring of solid tumor progression by circulating stromal cells from early- to late-stage disease
Authors: Adams Daniel L. , Bergan Raymond , Edelman Martin J. , Martin Stuart S. , Lapidus Rena , Chumsri Saranya , Tang Cha-Mei , Lin Steven H. 
Published: August 2018

Background: Blood-based biomarkers (PSA, CEA, CA125) are used to track real-time progression of disease in parallel with imaging. However, while numerous blood biomarkers exist, they are specific to cancer type (i.e., PSA to prostate and CEA to colon) and may not appear in all diseased individuals. Recently, cancer-associated macrophage-like cells (CAMLs), a circulating stromal cell subtype, were identified in various solid cancer types, which were observed increasing in size and in hyperploidy during progressive disease. To assess whether CAML enlargement is a biomarker of progression/response, we tracked CAML growth/shrinkage in a pilot study of patients (n=34). Blood was drawn from patients with lung, prostate, or breast cancers over a 3-month period, baseline through 2 treatment cycles, followed by continued monitoring for 2 years. These data suggest that morphologic assessment of CAMLs (growth/hyperploidy) appear to parallel cancer progression, or response to treatment, in multiple solid tumors.

Methods: A prospective multi-institutional study used anonymized peripheral blood samples from 34 cancer patients undergoing therapy [stage I (n=2), II (n=3), III (n=8) & IV (n=21)] with breast (n=10), lung (n=16), & prostate (n=8). Samples were taken prior to therapy (BL), at 1 month (FU1) follow-up and a 3-month (FU2) follow-up, after induction of therapy. Blood was processed by the CellSieve™ microfiltration technique at 4 institutions and stained for cytokeratin 8, 18 and 19, CD14 and CD45. After identification and quantification, CAMLs were measured based on their hyperploidy and cell size.

Results: CAMLs were found in 97% of cancer patients at BL, 97% at FU1 and 91% of FU2. Over the 2-year follow-up, 7 patients showed no signs of clinical disease progression, while 27 patients had observable progression. Of the 7 patients who did not progress, only two had CAMLs of ≥50µm at BL and at FU1, but whose CAMLs shrunk to &lt;50 µm by FU2. Of the 27 patients who progressed, 22 patients had ≥50µm CAMLs at all time points, while 5 patients had small &lt;50µm CAMLs at BL. Interestingly, CAMLs in these 5 patients had enlarged to ≥50µm by the FU2 time point.

Conclusions: We show that increased polynucleation and CAML enlargement indicate shorter progression-free survival in a number of cancer types after baseline. By monitoring CAML changes over time for the 34 individual patients, we demonstrated correlation of ongoing progression, or response, in tumors to the enlargement or shrinkage in CAMLs at follow-up time points from treatment induction. This pilot study suggests that CAMLs have the potential to monitor the progression/regression of malignancy in real time and suggests the need for larger validation studies.

Citation Format: Daniel L. Adams, Raymond Bergan, Martin J. Edelman, Stuart S. Martin, Rena Lapidus, Saranya Chumsri, Cha-Mei Tang, Steven H. Lin. Real-time monitoring of solid tumor progression by circulating stromal cells from early- to late-stage disease [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2018; 2018 Apr 14-18; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2018;78(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1560.