Abstract
Highly sensitive assays developed to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood are currently being evaluated for clinical relevance prior to first–line therapy initiation in persons with metastatic breast cancer. We report a case examined using CTCs for this purpose. A 34–year–old woman with multiple liver metastases from breast cancer monitored using CTCs asaay before and during chemotherapy had undergone radical mastectomy for left breast cancer in July 2000, In September 2006 she was treated with combining Xeroda, Zoladex, and Fareston for multiple liver metastases and she had a complete response in CT 3 months after chemotherapy. Parallel with CT, we examined CTCs in a 7.5–ml blood sample using fiber–optic array scanning before and during chemotherapy. No CTCs were seen 3 months after chemotherapy, even though 10 CTCs had been detected before chemotherapy.
