Grant: CIHR Fellowship

Breast Cancer and lung cancer are the most common cause of brain metastasis in at least 26% of patients. Unfortunately, patients who develop brain metastasis (BM) have a poor prognosis, hence a shorter survival time and reduce the patients' quality of life due to the associated neurologic deficits. Currently, BM is diagnosed using imaging techniques such as MRI, CAT / CT scans or tissue biopsy. However, these diagnostic techniques cannot be applied for tracking BM at a clinically operable stage due to lack of resolution, inability to capture the tumor's heterogenic nature, and being highly invasive. Hence, an accurate diagnostic method for brain metastasis still largely remains an unmet need. Liquid biopsy offers a potential solution for diagnosing BM non-invasively by providing a complete molecular assessment of tumor components in circulation. However, currently, there exists no biomarker specific for BM, thereby hindering the applicability of liquid biopsy. Additionally, the molecular traces of BMs are limited in circulation due to the blood-brain barrier. Hence, for a non -invasive diagnostic method for BM to be clinically useful, it should cross two significant barriers: first, the use of a reliable biomarker; second, a technique that is extremely sensitive enough to detect the traces of BM associated biomarkers. We have revealed through earlier research that detecting Cancer stem cell - associated circulating biomarkers and immune cell biomarkers can detect metastatic cancer with an accuracy of more than 95%. Hence, by utilizing the specificity of cancer stem cell-associated circulating markers and immune cells this project aims to perform pre-clinical validation of BM diagnosis using Metastasis Diagnostic Sensor (MDS), developed in- house. Taking advantage of the ultra-sensitivity of MDS and the BM-specific biomarkers, this project aims to develop a minimally invasive, easy-to-use, cost-effective clinical assessment tool that could monitor brain metastases.