# Real-time monitoring of circulating pancreatic tumor cells and clusters

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA · 2021 · $149,999

## Abstract

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDA), which has an overall five-year survival rate of 6%, is
predicted to become the second leading cause of cancer-related death in the US. 80% of PDA patients
who have surgery will suffer a recurrence likely due to undetectable metastases present at diagnosis; yet
standard of care radiographic imaging and blood-tests can be imprecise and are not predictive of
metastatic burden. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are thought to mediate much of the metastatic process,
and while FDA-approved tests are established for enumeration of CTCs shed into the blood by breast,
prostate, and colorectal tumors, such tests lack sufficient sensitivity for pancreatic tumors. Recently, we
showed that: PDA CTC heterogeneity promoted a more aggressive phenotype; CTC clusters were
associated with higher metastatic potential; and seeding at distal sites required more than one clone during
the course of metastatic disease progression. This proposal seeks to develop and optimize a liquid
biopsy for the measurement of single and clustered CTCs and their molecular signatures, in order
to address the urgent unmet need for non-invasive clinical monitoring of PDA patient metastatic
burden, disease progression, and treatment response. This industry/academic partnership will bring
together Becton Dickinson (BD)'s strengths in rare cell capture and molecular analysis, Johns Hopkins'
PDA antigen discovery programs, and Penn's pre-clinical PDA models, robust clinical PDA programs, and
dedicated Circulating Tumor Material Laboratory. First, technologies for efficient enrichment and sorting of
CTC clusters with high purity, recovery and viability will be optimized so that high quality RNA can be
isolated for downstream molecular analyses (RNA-seq). The BD Focus, which is a rare cell enrichment
platform being developed at BD, will be used for pre-enrichment and sorting using a combination of cell
surface antibody and RNA-based probes (i.e., BD's unique “nanoflare” technology). Second, a panel of
candidate CTC biomarkers will be finalized and validated in PDA pre-clinical mouse models as well as
patients with metastatic PDA. Finally, we will establish proof of concept for the CTC biomarkers to predict
and monitor the metastatic burden of a cohort of PDA patients starting at diagnosis and continuing after
commencement of therapy, and at time points coinciding with monitoring CT scans. Single cell and
clustered CTC counts and molecular signature will be correlated with metastatic burden, and survival. The
ability to enrich and perform molecular characterization of CTC single cells and clusters will provide a novel
and crucial technology to detect and monitor metastasis in PDA patients so that the appropriate therapeutic
strategies can be utilized in order to increase overall survival rates.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10219169
- **Project number:** 5R01CA207643-06
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
- **Principal Investigator:** Erica Carpenter
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $149,999
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2016-07-01 → 2022-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10219169

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10219169, Real-time monitoring of circulating pancreatic tumor cells and clusters (5R01CA207643-06). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10219169. Licensed CC0.

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