Patients with resectable solid primary cancers and even limited number of metastases are potentially curable. However, most patients develop recurrences despite surgery. Circulating and disseminated tumor cell (CTC/DTC) and circulating cell-free (cf) DNA isolation from the blood, urine and bone marrow will increase understanding of cancer spread and advance knowledge to develop individualized therapies.
Subjects older than 18 years.
Subjects of all genders and ethnicities.
Subjects with the diagnosis of a solid cancer (n=100) of all stages will be included (lung, esophageal, stomach, bile duct/pancreas, colorectal, melanoma, sarcoma).
Ten patients with no present suspicion and no previous history of any cancer (except basal cell cancer of the skin) that undergo surgeries for other benign indications will serve as controls (n=20).
Pregnant women.
Subjects with the concurrent diagnosis of an active secondary (synchronous) malignancy besides basal cell carcinoma of the skin will be excluded, if there is evidence of disease burden or if the patient is currently being treated with chemotherapy.
Subjects with a hemoglobin of <8g/dl in the morning of the procedure will be excluded.
In subjects who require intraoperative transfusions of >4 units of red packed blood cells (RPBCs), no further blood will be drawn for CTC/DTC/cfDNA analysis during surgery or on postoperative day 1.