Sophie D Fosså,1 Siri L Hess,1 Elisabeth Paus,2 Elin Borgen3 1National Resource Center for Late Effects after Cancer Treatment, 2Department of Medical Biochemistry, 3Department of Pathology, Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo University Hospital, Radiumhospital, Oslo, Norway Objectives: In patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC), the finding of less than five circulating tumor cells (CTCs)/7.5 mL blood before start of cytotoxic treatment or shortly thereafter indicates prolonged survival. In this descriptive pilot study, we investigated whether this association depends on the sequence of the therapeutic attempts. Patients and methods: CTCs were determined in 41 mCRPC patients before and 2–3 months after starting first-line treatment with docetaxel (group 1) or second-line treatment with either radium-223 (group 2) or placebo/best supportive care (group 3). A "favorable" CTC count was defined as
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