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Centre for Cancer Biomarkers CCBIO
CCBIO international affiliated investigators

Klaus Pantel

Professor Pantel did his MD at the University of Cologne in 1986, Dr. Med. at the University of Cologne in 1987 and Dr. Med. Habil. at the Ludwig-Maximillians-Universitaet in 1995. He is currently director of the Institute of Tumor Biology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf.

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Professor Pantel has done pioneer work in the field of cancer micrometastasis, circulating tumor cells and circulating nucleic acids (ctDNA, microRNAs). He coordinates the European TRANSCAN group “CTC-SCAN”, the European IMI consortium CANCERID (www.cancer-id.eu) on blood-based “Liquid Biopsies” and has established a clinical micrometastasis research network at the University Cancer Center Hamburg with a clear focus on diagnosis and treatment of solid tumors.

Professor Pantel’s expertise is particularly on disseminating tumor cells as a biomarker of treatment efficacy. This work provides new insights into the biology of early tumor cell dissemination in cancer patients with particular emphasis on the identification of the putative metastatic founder cells (“stem cells”) and the regulation of cancer dormancy responsible for late relapses in breast cancer patients.

Professor Pantel has a broad collaboration with CCBIO, most recently in a prospective non-randomized phase I trial of metastatic castration resistant prostate cancer. Here, he collaborated among others with Liv Cecilie Vestrheim Thomsen, Waqas Azeem, Lars A. Akslen, Bjørn Tore Gjertsen and Karl-Henning Kalland. The trial shows that dendritic cell based cryoimmunotherapy associates with clinical variables and changes in T-cell receptor expression.

Professor Pantel was also co-organizer of the CCBIO Satellite Symposium on Liquid Biopsies which took place the day before the CCBIO Annual Symposium, May 22nd 2018 at Solstrand outside of Bergen.