Determining the efficacy of ExThera Seraph100 blood filtration in patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer through the liquid biopsy

Stephanie N Shishido; Divya Suresh; George Courcoubetis; Brandon Ye; Emmeline Lin; Jeremy Mason; Ken Park; Michael Lewis; Ruoxiang Wang; Simon K Lo; Peter Kuhn; Stephen Pandol

doi:10.1038/s44276-024-00069-3

Determining the efficacy of ExThera Seraph100 blood filtration in patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer through the liquid biopsy

BJC Rep. 2024 Jun 27;2(1):47. doi: 10.1038/s44276-024-00069-3.

Authors

Stephanie N Shishido^#¹, Divya Suresh^#¹, George Courcoubetis¹, Brandon Ye¹, Emmeline Lin¹, Jeremy Mason^{1

2

3}, Ken Park⁴, Michael Lewis^{5

6

7}, Ruoxiang Wang⁴, Simon K Lo⁴, Peter Kuhn^{8

9

10

11

12

13}, Stephen Pandol⁴

Affiliations

¹ Convergent Science Institute for Cancer, Michelson Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA.
² Institute of Urology, Catherine & Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA.
³ Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA.
⁴ Pancreatic and Biliary Diseases Program, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 90048, USA.
⁵ Departments of Medicine and Pathology, Cedars Sinai Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 90048, USA.
⁶ Department of Pathology, VA Greater Los Angeles Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA, 90073, USA.
⁷ Center for Cancer Research and Development, Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, GA, 30314, USA.
⁸ Convergent Science Institute for Cancer, Michelson Center, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. [email protected].
⁹ Institute of Urology, Catherine & Joseph Aresty Department of Urology, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA. [email protected].
¹⁰ Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90033, USA. [email protected].
¹¹ Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. [email protected].
¹² Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. [email protected].
¹³ Department of Biological Sciences, Dornsife College of Letters, Arts, and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, 90089, USA. [email protected].

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Background: Cancer becomes lethal as it spreads from the primary site to the rest of the body. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are biomarkers of disease progression and have been associated with decreased overall survival. Blood filtration is a novel concept for removing CTCs from circulation to improve patient prognosis.

Methods: This study utilizes liquid biopsy to assess the efficacy of ExThera Medical's Seraph® 100 Microbind® Affinity Blood Filter on the blood of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) using the third generation high-definition single cell assay workflow. Blood samples from treatment-naïve PDAC patients were collected and analyzed to characterize the CTCs and other rare cells present before and after filtration.

Results: Examination of 6 paired portal vein blood (PoVB) samples demonstrated a statistically significant decrease in total rare cells, total cytokeratin (CK)+ cells, and CTCs across all patients due to filtration. Furthermore, analysis of 2 paired peripheral blood (PB) samples showed a decrease in total rare cells, total CK+ cells, and specific phenotypes of rare cells after filtration.

Discussion: These preliminary results demonstrate initial proof of concept that this filtration device can remove CTCs from circulation and may therefore be useful as a therapy or adjunct in PDAC patient care.

Abstract

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