RNA of Circulating Tumor Cells and Extracellular Vesicles in Metastatic Breast Cancer

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Why is it important?

mRNA enclosed in matched samples of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) was not compared before. We here show great differences in the prevalence of overexpression signals of both fractions. Furthermore the relation of the same transcript mTOR in CTCs and EVs to therapy response was complementary. Thus, any biomarker result should not be extrapolated to other liquid biopsies. The prevalence of ERBB2 (gene encoding HER2) overexpression in CTCs of the analyzed cohort of only patients with HER2 negative primary tumor tissue (40%), was found to be significantly correlated to therapy failure and might indicate new potential treatment options with anti-HER2 therapies in this cohort.