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Monitoring tumor evolution and drug resistance through a novel circulating tumor extracellular vesicle-based liquid biopsy

Speaker: Dr. Irene Casanova Salas
Institution: Prostate Cancer Translational Research Team. Vall Hebron Institute of Oncology (VHIO). Barcelona, Spain.

Place: Jerónimo Forteza conference room, CIPF

Abstract: Understanding the mechanisms underlying therapy resistance and heterogeneity in metastatic prostate cancer (mPC) is essential for developing more effective treatment strategies. Traditional biopsy methods for studying drug resistance are limited by their invasiveness and inability to capture dynamic changes over time. Moreover, single-biopsy analyses may fail to fully represent the complexity of tumor evolution. Liquid biopsies, which analyze blood samples, offer a minimally invasive approach for longitudinal monitoring of cancer dynamics. Current methods primarily focus on next-generation sequencing (NGS) analysis of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) or circulating tumor cells (CTCs), tracking tumor-specific changes throughout disease progression. However, other sources, such as extracellular vesicles (EVs)—small particles released by tumor cells into circulation—contain stable DNA and RNA, providing a novel means to monitor genomic and transcriptomic changes. Our RExCuE (mRNA Expression in Circulating EVs) platform exemplifies this capability, offering an innovative tool for monitoring mRNA alterations in circulation.

Profiling circulating tumor EVs enables a deeper understanding of the adaptive responses of tumors and their ecosystems to treatment, ultimately supporting more effective and personalized therapeutic strategies

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