Vickers AJ, Frese K, Galvin M, et al. - Given that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) can be used to create explants (CDX) for studying small cell lung cancer (SCLC) biology and developing novel therapeutics, researchers conducted this single center, retrospective analysis to ascertain if the success of CDX generation can be predicted by demographic or clinical factors, and if CDX models are representative of the SCLC patient population. The sample consisted of SCLC patients who had partaken in the CHEMORES Study. Two hundred thirty-one paired blood samples were obtained from 147 patients. Patients whose samples produce CDX models might have a greater disease burden and more aggressive disease. Therefore, insights gained by the SCLC CDX analysis could have a major effect, particularly in the subpopulation of SCLC with the greatest clinical need. Patients with successful samples had significantly shorter progression free survival and overall survival.