On February 18, at the Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Innovation Conference, a study by Professor Xiong Bin from the Central South Hospital of Wuhan University was awarded the first prize of the Science and Technology Progress Award of Hubei Province in 2020. The study broke through the technical barrier of circulating tumor cell detection, and can provide technical support for accurate diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors.
Recurrence and metastasis are the primary cause of malignant tumor death. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), as tumor cells separated from the primary or metastatic foci of solid tumors into the peripheral blood circulation, play a key role in malignant tumor metastasis. CTC is found at extremely low levels (about 1 in every 100 million cells) in the bloodstream. Its detection requires high technology, which leads to technical barriers. Thoroughly understanding the molecular mechanism of invasive phenotype CTCs production and meditating tumor recurrence and metastasis, researching the clinical practice significance and value of CTC detection, and refining and quantifying the model of tumor recurrence and metastasis are important procedures to solve the thorny clinical problem of malignant tumor recurrence and metastasis, as well as powerful weapons for accurate diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumor.
Xiong Bin’s research group carried out systematic and in-depth research around CTCs, lasting for 10 years, forming a research system for the detection of circulating tumor cells and providing a strong theoretical and practical basis for accurate diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors. The results system has been recognized by the expert group as an international leader in this field.
It is reported that the study of CTCs metastasis mechanism and the development of rapid detection equipment face three key problems: the generation of CTCs invasive phenotypes and the molecular mechanisms that mediate tumor metastasis; the clinical significance of CTCs phenotype and their number changes; the inefficiency and high technical requirements of the existing CTCs detection system. All of these require technical breakthroughs.
Since 2010, Xiong Bin’s team, together with Youzhiyou Biotechnology Co. Ltd., has clarified the molecular mechanism of CTC epithelial interstitial transformation and its molecular mechanism of mediating distant metastasis by establishing a model of interaction between CTC and tumor microenvironment. The group has achieved CTCs high efficiency and high purity capture by various means, established a CTCs capture identification technology system and revealed the clinical significance and value of CTCs detection. Finally they successfully developed a CTCBIOPSY® detection system with independent intellectual property rights, breaking through the technical barriers of CTCs detection, which provides strong technical support for accurate diagnosis and treatment of malignant tumors.
The research results of this project are published in international authoritative academic journals (Advanced Materials、Theronostics、Molecular Cancer、International Journal of Nanomedicine、Journal of Hematology &Oncology, etc.) in the form of papers. More than 60 SCI papers have been published, whose total number of influencing factors is more than 150 points and the total number of citations in SCI is more than 1,000 times.
Since the launch of the project, 16 national and provincial academic conferences have been held in total. It was invited to report on the application of CTCs in cancer diagnosis and treatment at the 2015 National Clinical Cancer Academic Conference, the 2016 China Experimental Surgery Academic Conference and the 2019 China Cancer Marker Academic Conference.
During the implementation of the project, the research group obtained 17 national patents, including 11 invention patents. The CTCBIOPSY® circulating tumor cell detector has been CFDA certified for clinical application. It has played a great role in guiding the accurate treatment of malignant tumors and achieved remarkable social and economic benefits.
Rewritten by Wang Xuanqi
Edited by Zou Xiaohan
