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Optimisation Of The Isolation And Identification Of Circulating Melanoma Cells, Anda-Gabriela Marsavela

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Although melanoma is largely curable when detected in its earliest stages, it can metastasise to other tissues, drastically reducing survival rates. The most recent therapies used to treat metastatic melanoma are effective long-term in only 11 to 33% of patients. Our ability to monitor treatment failure is limited. New prognostic markers are urgently required to allow monitoring of treatment response and disease progression.

Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are released into the bloodstream by the tumours within a patient, this being a key step in melanoma spread. Since CTCs can be detected in the blood of metastatic melanoma patients, these cells …