Newswise — Dario Marchetti, Ph.D., recently joined Houston Methodist Hospital as the new director of the Center for Biomarkers. Over the past seven years, Marchetti’s lab at Baylor College of Medicine has made key discoveries in the biology and clinical use of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Marchetti’s team also has identified biomarkers that could one day lead to a CTC biomarker test that may guide the treatment of brain metastatic breast cancer in patients.

CTCs are proving to be viable diagnostic tools for noninvasive, real-time assessment of molecular profiles during the course of cancer progression, Marchetti said. However, he pointed out that current technologies prevent researchers from identifying the majority of the CTCs from breast cancer patients that spread (metastasize) to the brain. Most cancer deaths are due to metastasis, and brain metastases are increasing in frequency with poor survival rates. Brain metastasis occurs in approximately 20 percent of all breast cancer cases, as well as in other types of cancer like melanoma and lung cancer.

Marchetti and team are working to develop a biomarker program with Houston Methodist faculty across numerous disciplines, but they will primarily focus on brain metastasis. Marchetti’s main priorities are to better understand why cancer recurs and how to decipher the molecular heterogeneity of CTC subsets shed from tumors and responsible for metastases.

Marchetti holds a Ph.D. in molecular biology from the University of Pavia, Italy. He serves on the editorial boards of numerous journals; is a grant reviewer for national and international funding agencies, including the National Institutes of Health and the Department of Defense; and is a consultant for several biotechnology companies. His research has received continued peer-reviewed funding for more than 20 years from federal, state, institutional and private organizations.

To speak with Dario Marchetti, Ph.D., contact Gale Smith, Houston Methodist, at 281.627.0439 or [email protected]. For more information about Houston Methodist, visit www.houstonmethodist.org. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook or visit our blog.