FETCH enables oncologists and pharmacodynamic researchers to obtain relevant information on target expression from metastatic patients quickly and low-invasively. FETCH analysis can be performed at multiple time-points. This enables signaling and study of resistance to the ongoing treatment, as well as information on the best suited follow-up therapy.

For this, FETCH retrieves tumour material from the patients entire blood volume:

First, leukapheresis is performed at the clinic. This is a standard medical procedure which collects white blood cells and tumour cells. This product is then sent to FETCH service laboratories, where circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are enriched from the billions of healthy cells present in the sample. Identification of tumour cells as well as determination of the presence of actionable targets is performed using fluorescence microscopy. The result is presented to the oncologist or researcher in the form of the number of CTCs detected and expression of the actionable targets of interest. When required, single CTCs can be isolated for in-depth genomic or transcriptomic analysis.

The FETCH technology allows efficient processing of the entire leukapheresis product. This capability is achieved by improving the immunomagnetic enrichment method. Here, magnetic particles coated with tumour specific antibodies are used to magnetically capture CTCs. During this process, FETCH prevents cell clumping and reduces the non-specific capture of white blood cells, making the detection of CTCs more specific. Together with our optimized magnetic enrichment and efficient use of reagents, FETCH is able to perform large volume sample processing. Early validation studies in metastatic prostate cancer predict a 200x increase in CTC yield compared to currently used standards.