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IMS 2026 | Circulating tumor cells as prognostic and molecular biomarkers in multiple myeloma
Luca Bertamini, MD, Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, Netherlands, discusses the potential value of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) for risk stratification and molecular profiling in multiple myeloma. He highlights how CTC burden is associated with outcomes and how CTCs can provide information on tumor biology and high-risk genetic features, supporting their potential role as a prognostic and liquid biopsy tool. This interview took place at the 23rd International Myeloma Society (IMS) Annual Meeting in Glasgow, UK.
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Transcript
So this morning we have been talking a lot about blood-based risk stratification and diagnosis in myeloma and I had the pleasure to present about circulating tumor cells which are cells, myeloma cells, in the blood that we can detect using flow cytometry and what I’ve been presenting is mainly two things. The first is that we know that we can use circulating cells for molecular profiling of patients on one hand because they really are similar to the bone marrow cells so they can be used for liquid biopsy purposes and on the other hand the burden of CTCs, so how many CTCs are in the blood, is very relevant: patients with higher levels of CTCs have a worse outcome and this is really gradient, it’s not a black and white condition, and I also showed how circulating cells are not just reflecting how many cells that are in the marrow but are giving us a lot of information about the tumor itself, about how much proliferation there is in the marrow and particularly which genetic lesions are more likely to be present in a patient, particularly high-risk genetic lesions that we are testing right now in our current staging system, like TP53 mutation, del17p, MAF translocations, but also more complex genetic alterations like APOBEC mutations and chromothripsis...
So this morning we have been talking a lot about blood-based risk stratification and diagnosis in myeloma and I had the pleasure to present about circulating tumor cells which are cells, myeloma cells, in the blood that we can detect using flow cytometry and what I’ve been presenting is mainly two things. The first is that we know that we can use circulating cells for molecular profiling of patients on one hand because they really are similar to the bone marrow cells so they can be used for liquid biopsy purposes and on the other hand the burden of CTCs, so how many CTCs are in the blood, is very relevant: patients with higher levels of CTCs have a worse outcome and this is really gradient, it’s not a black and white condition, and I also showed how circulating cells are not just reflecting how many cells that are in the marrow but are giving us a lot of information about the tumor itself, about how much proliferation there is in the marrow and particularly which genetic lesions are more likely to be present in a patient, particularly high-risk genetic lesions that we are testing right now in our current staging system, like TP53 mutation, del17p, MAF translocations, but also more complex genetic alterations like APOBEC mutations and chromothripsis. So CTCs give a lot of information and could really serve as a great prognostic marker.
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