A Georgetown study has confirmed the validity of a new blood test designed to better assess the effectiveness of treatment options for breast cancer.

The prospective study, published Monday by researchers at the [Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center](https://lombardi.georgetown.edu/) at Georgetown University Medical Center, indicates that a new blood test detecting circulating cancer cells can help doctors better plan and formulate treatment options.

Dr. Minetta Liu, assistant professor of medicine and oncology and the lead investigator for the project, said the often-exhausting number of breast cancer treatment options cannot be used at once, forcing doctors to selectively use varying regimens over time. Each patient poses another challenge as cancer rarely strikes in exactly the same manner from person to person. Therefore, institutions like the Lombardi Center have taken strides toward personalized medicine.

“CTC [circulating cancer cell] enumeration is certainly a step forward to helping us individualize oncologic therapy,” Liu said. “It can also be used in metastatic colorectal and metastatic prostate cancer.” Metastatic cancers, those that have spread to other organs in the body, release enough circulating cancer cells to be effectively detected by the blood test.

ost insurance providers, including Medicare, are already covering the blood test that counts circulating tumor cells, Liu said. Unlike the standard radiology studies – computed tomography or CT scan, for example – that are performed every nine to 12 weeks, the CTC enumeration can be completed within a few days of the blood test.

“Results are reportable within 96 hours of sample collection,” Liu said. “The assay is run at many reference laboratories, including here on campus. It costs about $400 to $500.”

The test may even have potential use in the future as an early warning system before cancer growth becomes detectable, according to Liu.

“There is certainly interest in using the assay as means of monitoring for recurrence in patients who have completed treatment for early stage breast cancer, or as means of screening patients for the initial presentation of breast cancer,” Liu said.

Liu cautioned that improved sensitivity of the assay is necessary before any form of early detection becomes possible, since the number of circulating cancer cells is much lower in those settings.

“We have many treatment options for advanced breast cancer,” Liu said in a press release issued by Georgetown University Medical Center. “The keys are to find the most effective therapy for each patient and to balance treatment benefit with quality of life. This noninvasive method of monitoring patients – based on a simple blood test – brings us closer to these goals.”