Establishment and Application of 3-Dimensional (3-D) Cell Culture Model of Clinical Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs)

NCT ID: NCT05623748

Last Updated: 2025-09-24

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

160 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-08-31

Study Completion Date

2025-08-31

Brief Summary

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The goal of this observational study is to validate and evaluate the clinical feasibility of using a 3-D cell culture model for CTCs isolation/purification and their cell number expansion in cancer patient with transitional cell carcinoma and patient without cancer.

This project first aims to study the clinical feasibility of utilizing a 3-D cell culture model for the isolation/purification of all possible CTCs in a blood sample in a label-free, viable, and high-purity manner. Through 3-D CTC culture, moreover, the cell number of CTCs can be adequately expanded. All these advantageous features are beyond what is currently possible by using the existing methods. In addition, the harvest of CTCs with above features is found valuable for the subsequent academic researches or clinical studies (e.g. molecular mechanisms underlying cancer metastasis, cancer-related gene mutation, biomarker discovery, and particularly CTCs-based chemotherapy drug testing). These could both facilitate and accelerate scientists to develop new therapeutic solutions for future cancer care.

Detailed Description

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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), the rare cell species present in the blood, are considered to mainly contribute to cancer metastasis or relapse. Thus, the detection of CTCs is regarded as an essential clinical tool to detect metastatic cancer. Moreover, CTCs can be the therapeutic target of metastatic cancer care. Therefore, the use of viable CTCs as a biopsy to select therapeutic regimens (e.g. CTCs-based anti-cancer drug testing) opens up a promising route to realize personalized cancer therapy. With the recent advances in cell isolation or detection techniques, various novel approaches have been actively proposed to isolate/detect CTCs. Nevertheless, most of current methods might not be able to obtain the all possible, viable, and label-free CTCs with adequate cell purity and cell number for the subsequent CTCs-based anti-cancer drug testing or other bioassays. To tackle the above technical hurdles, the research project proposes the use of a specific 3-D cell culture technique for the isolation/purification, and cell number expansion of CTCs.

The working principle is based on our preliminary findings showing that the human leukocytes will die away in 3-D cell culture condition, whereas the CTCs will tend to aggregate and proliferate in such environment. Based on this phenomenon, the 3-D CTC cell culture can be used to isolate and purify the viable CTCs from the leukocyte background in a negative selection, and label-free manner, enabling the harvest of the all possible CTCs in a blood sample. Furthermore, the proliferation of CTCs in such 3-D cell culture can adequately expand the cell number of CTCs for the subsequent applications, which is currently impossible using the existing methods.

In the 1st year research project, investigators will further validate and evaluate the clinical feasibility of using a 3-D cell culture model for CTCs isolation/purification and their cell number expansion. In the 2nd and 3rd year research project, investigators will optimize the 3-D cell culture model so as to increase the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation. In the optimization process, investigators will explore the effect of cell culture model (e.g. static or perfusion cell culture, and 3-D cell culture using different 3-D scaffolding materials) or biochemical factors (e.g. glucose concentration, serum concentration, pH, or the supplements of growth factors/cytokines) on the the performances of CTC solation/purification and proliferation. As a whole, investigators hope the proposed research project can find out an efficient and effective approach to isolate/purify/expand clinical CTCs in a viable, label-free, and high-purity manner. These harvested CTCs are valuable for the subsequent analytical tasks.

Conditions

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Cell Carcinoma

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

CASE_CONTROL

Study Time Perspective

CROSS_SECTIONAL

Study Groups

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Cancer for CTC culture

participants are cancer patients with transitional cell carcinoma

CTCs isolation/purification and cell number expansion

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

In the 1st year research project, investigators will further validate and evaluate the clinical feasibility of using a 3-D cell culture model for CTCs isolation/purification and their cell number expansion. In the 2nd and 3rd year research project, investigators will optimize the 3-D cell culture model so as to increase the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation. In the optimization process, investigators will explore the effect of cell culture model (e.g. static or perfusion cell culture, and 3-D cell culture using different 3-D scaffolding materials) or biochemical factors (e.g. glucose concentration, serum concentration, pH, or the supplements of growth factors/cytokines) on the the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation.

Healthy for CTC culture

enroll participants without cancer

CTCs isolation/purification and cell number expansion

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

In the 1st year research project, investigators will further validate and evaluate the clinical feasibility of using a 3-D cell culture model for CTCs isolation/purification and their cell number expansion. In the 2nd and 3rd year research project, investigators will optimize the 3-D cell culture model so as to increase the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation. In the optimization process, investigators will explore the effect of cell culture model (e.g. static or perfusion cell culture, and 3-D cell culture using different 3-D scaffolding materials) or biochemical factors (e.g. glucose concentration, serum concentration, pH, or the supplements of growth factors/cytokines) on the the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation.

Interventions

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CTCs isolation/purification and cell number expansion

In the 1st year research project, investigators will further validate and evaluate the clinical feasibility of using a 3-D cell culture model for CTCs isolation/purification and their cell number expansion. In the 2nd and 3rd year research project, investigators will optimize the 3-D cell culture model so as to increase the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation. In the optimization process, investigators will explore the effect of cell culture model (e.g. static or perfusion cell culture, and 3-D cell culture using different 3-D scaffolding materials) or biochemical factors (e.g. glucose concentration, serum concentration, pH, or the supplements of growth factors/cytokines) on the the performances of CTC isolation/purification and proliferation.

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

1. patients who agreed with the content of informed consent of the study protocol
2. patients who agreed the researcher to review the medical record
3. adults \>20 years old
4. Patients have the right to asked withdrawing from the trial at any timepoints
5. meet the following requirements (1)cancer participants:cancer patients with transitional cell carcinoma (2)healthy participants:participants without cancer

Exclusion Criteria

1. Patients who refused the collection of blood and the reviewing of medical record
2. The investigators suggest to withdraw
Minimum Eligible Age

20 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Sponsors

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Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Hsuan-Chih Kuo

Role: STUDY_DIRECTOR

Ye,Siou-Ru

Locations

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Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

New Taipei City, , Taiwan

Site Status

Countries

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Taiwan

References

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Oppenheimer SB. Cellular basis of cancer metastasis: A review of fundamentals and new advances. Acta Histochem. 2006;108(5):327-34. doi: 10.1016/j.acthis.2006.03.008. Epub 2006 May 26.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 16730054 (View on PubMed)

Mehlen P, Puisieux A. Metastasis: a question of life or death. Nat Rev Cancer. 2006 Jun;6(6):449-58. doi: 10.1038/nrc1886.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 16723991 (View on PubMed)

Konstantopoulos K, Thomas SN. Cancer cells in transit: the vascular interactions of tumor cells. Annu Rev Biomed Eng. 2009;11:177-202. doi: 10.1146/annurev-bioeng-061008-124949.

Reference Type BACKGROUND
PMID: 19413512 (View on PubMed)

Related Links

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http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs297/en/

Cancer is a generic term for a large group of diseases that can affect any part of the body. Other terms used are malignant tumours and neoplasms.

http://www.hpa.gov.tw/BHPNet/Web/Index/Index.aspx

This is the announcements about cancer in the website of Taiwan's DOH

Other Identifiers

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202101222A3

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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