Circulating Tumor Cells, from Biotech Innovation to Clinical Utility

Carolina Reduzzi is a Research Associate at Weill Cornell Medicine. She obtained a degree with laude in Biology Applied to Biomedical Research in 2014 at the University of Milan. She has been working on liquid biopsy for the last decade, first at the National Cancer Institute of Milan (Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Nazionale dei Tumori), where she obtained her PhD in 2020, and subsequently at the Northwestern University of Chicago, where she conducted her postdoctoral research on circulating tumor cells in breast cancer. Since 2022 she is the Director of Dr. Cristofanilli’s laboratory at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is a member of the Young Committee of the International Society of Liquid Biopsy, reviewer for different journals including Cell Reports, Scientific Reports, Cancers and BMC Cancer, and grant reviewer for the Italian Health Ministry and the Fondation Toulouse Cancer Santé.

Lorenzo Gerratana is a Physician scientist at the IRCCS CRO Aviano National cancer Institute and a Research fellow at the Department of Medicine at the University of Udine. After graduating as MD, he focused on DNA repair in vitro models in Triple Negative Breast Cancer, clinical methodology and endpoint analysis. As a medical oncology fellow at the University of Udine and visiting scholar at the Northwestern University of Chicago he focused his research on liquid biopsy and big data, with the aim of transferring promising tissue and liquid biopsy-based biomarkers and treatment strategies from the bench to the bedside, with a pragmatic imprinting towards clinical utility and transferability. He currently serves as Attending Physician at the IRCCS CRO Aviano National Cancer Institute as part of the Breast Unit and the Precision Medicine Multidisciplinary Team.

Massimo Cristofanilli, MD, is an accomplished board-certified medical oncologist with more than two decades of experience as physician, investigator, researcher and leader. He has demonstrated original and innovative vision in the field of molecular diagnostics, liquid biopsy, translational research and drug development. Additionally, Dr. Cristofanilli has an extensive background in clinical trial design and is a key thought leader in the field of metastatic and locally advanced breast cancer. At Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian, Dr. Cristofanilli serves as the Director of Breast Medical Oncology, the Associate Director of Precision Oncology at the Meyer Cancer Center (MCC), and the co-leader of the MCC Breast Cancer Disease Management Team, as well as the Scientific Director of the Englander Institute of Precision Medicine (EIPM). Dr. Cristofanilli received his medical degree from the University “La Sapienza” in Rome with Honors where he subsequently completed his fellowship in medical oncology. He completed an Internal Medicine residency at Cabrini Medical Center in New York and a medical oncology fellowship at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, where he also served as Faculty in the Department of Breast Medical Oncology for more than a decade.Dr. Cristofanilli has held several leadership positions over the years, including Chairman of Medical Oncology and Associate Director of Clinical Research at the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Associate Director of Translational Research at Thomas Jefferson University. From 2015-2021, Dr. Cristofanilli was Professor of Medicine at the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University in Chicago where he also served as the Director of the Breast Disease Team, Director of the Robert Lurie Cancer Center OncoSET Precision Medicine Program, and Associate Director of Clinical Research. In addition to his clinical expertise, Dr. Cristofanilli’s research focuses on biomarkers of endocrine resistance in breast cancer, liquid biopsies and novel drug development. His research in the areas of novel drug development, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and ctDNA have led to improved treatments for breast cancer. Dr. Cristofanilli is an internationally recognized expert in the research and treatment of Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC), the most aggressive and deadly form of breast cancer. He is the founder and President of the IBC International Consortium (IBC-IC). Additionally, Dr. Cristofanilli is globally recognized for his contributions on the detection of micrometastatic disease in breast cancer and a key opinion leader in drug development in hormone-receptor positive metastatic breast cancer. He has co-authored more than 400 peer-reviewed manuscripts.