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  4. Digoxin for reduction of circulating tumor cell cluster size in metastatic breast cancer: a proof-of-concept trial
 
research article

Digoxin for reduction of circulating tumor cell cluster size in metastatic breast cancer: a proof-of-concept trial

Kurzeder, Christian
•
Nguyen-Sträuli, Bich Doan
•
Krol, Ilona
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January 24, 2025
Nature Medicine

The presence of circulating tumor cell (CTC) clusters is associated with disease progression and reduced survival in a variety of cancer types. In breast cancer, preclinical studies showed that inhibitors of the Na + /K + ATPase suppress CTC clusters and block metastasis. Here we conducted a prospective, open-label, proof-of-concept study in women with metastatic breast cancer, where the primary objective was to determine whether treatment with the Na + /K + ATPase inhibitor digoxin could reduce mean CTC cluster size. An analysis of nine patients treated daily with a maintenance digoxin dose (0.7–1.4 ng ml −1 serum level) revealed a mean cluster size reduction of −2.2 cells per cluster upon treatment ( P = 0.003), meeting the primary endpoint of the study. Mechanistically, transcriptome profiling of CTCs highlighted downregulation of cell–cell adhesion and cell-cycle-related genes upon treatment with digoxin, in line with its cluster-dissolution activity. No treatment-related adverse events occurred. Thus, our data provide a first-in-human proof of principle that digoxin treatment leads to a partial CTC cluster dissolution, encouraging larger follow-up studies with refined Na + /K + ATPase inhibitors and that include clinical outcome endpoints. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT03928210 .

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Type
research article
DOI
10.1038/s41591-024-03486-6
Author(s)
Kurzeder, Christian

University of Basel

Nguyen-Sträuli, Bich Doan

University of Basel

Krol, Ilona

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Ring, Alexander

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Castro-Giner, Francesc

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Nüesch, Manuel  

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Asawa, Simran

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Zhang, Yu Wei

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Budinjas, Selina

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

Gvozdenovic, Ana

École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne

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Date Issued

2025-01-24

Publisher

Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Published in
Nature Medicine
Volume

31

Issue

4

Start page

1120

End page

1124

Editorial or Peer reviewed

REVIEWED

Written at

EPFL

EPFL units
EPFL  
Available on Infoscience
May 27, 2025
Use this identifier to reference this record
https://infoscience.epfl.ch/handle/20.500.14299/250641
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