Clearbridge BioMedics, National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS), Singapore General Hospital diagnostic, pharmacogenetics news
NCCS and Clearbridge partnered with the hospital's pathology department to launch a Circulating Tumour Cell Centre of Research Excellence (CTC CoRE) to support the use of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in clinical diagnostics. The center, which is located within the hospital's pathology department, will aim to understand the genetic makeup of a patient's cancer cells. To determine the effectiveness of treatment, scientists from NCCS will draw blood samples from patients pre- and post-treatment, send them to the hospital's cytology lab to isolate cancer cells and count and document the number of cancer cells using a cytogenetic test. CTC CoRE said if there is no significant reduction in the number of cancer cells, the oncologist may decide to modify the treatment regime.
CTC CoRE will use Clearbridge's ClearCell FX system, a label-free enrichment system for CTCs, to separate the cancer cells from other blood components. Clearbridge said this is the pilot use of the system, which the company hopes to be in the clinic by next year. ...