Residual or metastatic disease

CLS is developing molecular-based methods that are able to define the efficacy of surgery (tumor removal) and detect evidence of residual disease in metastatic sites like lymph nodes, the liver or bone marrow. Current approaches based on imaging require ~0.5cm size lesions (~6,000,000 cells) before they can be detected. Preoperative morphologic imaging techniques detect less than 50% of hepatic metastases and all tumors are likely under-staged. Results using CLS technology identified metastases in 50% of lymph nodes classified by current approaches as “disease-free”. The CLS approach is accurate, highly sensitive and can be used to identify minimal residual disease and accurately define disease stage. Such information facilitates early therapeutic intervention and is potentially applicable to a range of cancers including breast, colon, lung, pancreatic melanoma, myeloma, NET and prostate cancer.