Jeffrey Smerage, a clinical fellow at the University’s Comprehensive Research Center, has developed a study using state-of-the-art technology to measure the effectiveness of specific treatments on breast cancer patients.

The project is based on a separate study conducted in August by the Comprehensive Cancer Center and other national cancer centers. The study showed that the number of tumor cells circulating in the blood of a cancer patient shortly after they have started treatment may be a good indication of whether the treatment will be successful.

This study used novel technology to isolate and extract cells to examine — a groundbreaking, fast and efficient technique to observe cancer. Currently, patients must wait months before bone scans or X-rays can be done to see how effective the treatment has been.

Armed with knowledge of this technology and an interest in the study, Smerage was accepted to participate in the Young Investigators Training Course, a specific research training program targeting researchers who are jumpstarting their careers in clinical research.

Smerage was one of four national researchers selected for the two-week course. The researcher submits a proposal for a clinical research study that fits the agenda of the Southwest Oncology Group, a national research institute that sponsors the course, said Dayna Sparks, the group’s operations representative.

“The goal is for (the researcher) to come out of the course with a fully developed protocol that will be activated within the group,” Sparks said.

Smerage’s proposal was to create a trial studying whether changing chemotherapy treatments in a patient with elevated tumor cell numbers would be effective. This proposal is related to the August study, and it will be conducted through the Southwest Oncology Group’s breast cancer department.

It has taken five to eight years to develop technology that can be used to accurately study, count and analyze specific cancer cells. Now that this technology is available, researchers can apply it to find out how target therapies — which have a specific effect on cells — biologically affect cancer, Smerage said.

The August study showed chemotherapy was futile for women who already had elevated numbers of tumor cells previous to treatment, Smerage said.

“I am interested in finding out if it is effective to switch a patient from one chemotherapy treatment to another, based on the number of tumor cells in their blood,” Smerage said.

In Smerage’s trial, a patient will start off with a cancer treatment chosen by their doctor. At a later time, they will come back and have their blood drawn. Patients with elevated numbers of cancer cells will either continue their treatment or switch to a different treatment.

“We will follow them to see how long it takes to find evidence that their cancer has progressed,” Smerage said.

For this particular trial, the preliminary draft of the protocol has been written. A concept has been submitted to the National Cancer Institute and it is being evaluated. Once the concept has been accepted, the protocol will open as a national trial, probably this spring, Smerage said.