ER positive breast cancer ctDNA - have they kept my cancer cells?

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I know that there is a study in the UK that uses circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) blood tests to monitor patients with ER-positive breast cancer who are receiving hormone therapy. This trial may or may not conclude that you can test to find out if breast cancer has spread, but it got me thinking about whether cells from my tumour taken out back in 2021, are still kept in a laboratory. If it turns out that you can detect if the cancer has spread by this ctDNA blood test, I'd like to think that I would benefit from this and that my tumour cells have been preserved.

How do I go about finding out if the cells are preserved or if they have been disposed of?

Thank you for your time.

Gemma J - Macmillan 19 days ago

Dear Wishdragon

Welcome to our online community here at the Macmillan support line. My name is Gemma, and I’m one of the Cancer Information Nurse Specialists here.

Many samples, and particularly tissue, or cell, samples, are often kept in hospital laboratory archives for many years (and even for your lifetime and beyond) as part of your medical record. So, they can be reviewed and discussed by this hospital’s clinicians and pathologists as part of your medical care now and in the future.

To find out if and which of yours have been archived, it is necessary to contact the hospital who removed the cells from you. You could reach out to your hospital team contact, or the PALS- Patient Advice and Liaison Service to ask this specific question.

However, circulating tumour DNA blood tests are often carried out without requiring access to previous samples. Often researchers will look for common genetic mutations shared by specific cancer cells in the blood samples initially. Your initial pathology report could include this information already.

Clinical trials have inclusion and exclusion criteria that must be met to enrol in one. It might be worth contacting the department leading the trial you are interested in to discuss whether their trial is a good fit for you personally.

If you think it may be helpful to chat things over in more detail with one of the nurses here please do give us a call. We can often explain things better over a spoken call with the opportunity to ask questions.

With Kind Regards,

Gemma J, Cancer Information Nurse Specialist

You can also speak with the Macmillan Support Line team of experts. Phone free on 0808 808 0000 (7 days a week, 8am-8pm) or send us an email.

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ER positive breast cancer ctDNA - have they kept my cancer cells?