Circulating biomarkers in cancer progression and treatment

Abstract

Cancers consist of diverse clonal cell populations. In addition to cancer-stroma interactions, different cancer cell subpopulations can influence each other’s treatment responses. This thesis describes a novel model to track interaction between cancer subpopulations and the host in response to drug treatment. Moreover, studies in this thesis suggest that combined serial analyses of DNA and microRNAs in the circulation provide a molecular footprint of cancer that is crucial for adequate monitoring of cancer progression as well as treatment responses in real time with a minimally invasive procedure