Circulating Tumor Cells in Lung Cancer.
- Author:
Sei Hoon YANG
1
;
Yun Sik YANG
Author Information
- Publication Type:Review
- Keywords: Circulating neoplastic cells; Lung neoplasms
- MeSH: Biology; Colon; Humans; Lung; Lung Neoplasms; Neoplasm Metastasis; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating; Prognosis
- From:Journal of Lung Cancer 2011;10(1):13-25
- CountryRepublic of Korea
- Language:Korean
- Abstract: Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) can be released from the primary lung tumour into the bloodstream and they may colonize distant organs and give rise to metastasis. The presence of CTCs in the blood has been documented more than a century ago, and ultrasensitive methods have been recently developed to detect circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of lung cancer patients. Most CTCs require an initial enrichment step, since CTCs are a very rare event. The different technologies and also the differences among the screened populations make the clinical significance of detecting CTCs difficult to interpret. Peripheral blood analyses are more convenient for patients than invasive BM sampling and many research groups are currently assessing the clinical utility of CTCs for assessing the prognosis and monitoring the response to systemic therapies in lung cancer patients. Here we will review the different assays that are currently available for CTC detection and analysis of lung cancer. Moreover, molecular analyses of CTCs have provided new insights into the biology of metastasis of lung cancer with important implications for the clinical management of lung cancer patients.
