Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are defined as tumor cells circulating in the peripheral blood of patients. CTCs have long been regarded as an attractive research topic. Because of recent technological advances, it is now possible to detect CTCs in the bloodstream. Interestingly, CTCs are present in both of patients with metastatic disease and early stage localized disease in patients with breast cancer. An assay detecting CTCs seems to have significant future potential value in the clinical management of breast cancer as a prognostic marker, monitoring treatment response and selecting target therapy. This review addresses the technical overview of detection methods, possible clinical application and future direction of CTCs research.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Humans ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating

The circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are derived from primary or metastatic tumor lesions and can be detected in the peripheral blood. With certain specific features, CTCs can,to certain extent, reflect the progression and invasiveness of tumors. Detection of CTCs may provide a powerful and noninvasive approach for diagnosing neoplastic disease, identifying drug sensitivity, and enabling real-time treatment monitoring and prognosis prediction. Improvements in cell isolation and molecular identification will enable a broad range of clinical applications.
Cell Separation ; Disease Progression ; Humans ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Prognosis

It has been a problem in clinical practice that high recurrence and poor survival of patients with colorectal cancer undergoing surgery. As an easy-accessible, repetitive, non-invasive "liquid biopsy" technology, circulating tumor cells(CTC) can assist us in many fields, for instance, real-time monitoring tumor status and providing information about recurrence and prognosis of colorectal cancer. In this review, generation mechanism and relevant major regulation molecules of CTC will be elucidated, and principles, superiorities and inferiorities among different detection technologies were compared. Besides, clinical application and prognostic value of CTC in stage I-III colorectal caner were discussed, and the dilemma of low detection rate of CTC will be tried to solve as well.
Colorectal Neoplasms ; Humans ; Neoplasm Staging ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Prognosis

Biomarkers, Tumor ; Humans ; Neoplasms/diagnosis* ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating/pathology*

In recent years, the incidence of chest malignant tumors in China has increased year by year, which has seriously threatened the health problems of people. Among them, early screening and intervention of patients with chest malignancies is the key to cancer prevention. Early detection, early diagnosis, and early treatment as the "three early prevention" of clinical practice are conducive to improve the survival rate of tumor patients. As a non-invasive and real-time reflection of tumor status, liquid biopsy has gradually received attention in clinical diagnosis and treatment. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and exosomes as liquid biopsy "Three carriages" are not only widely used in the diagnosis, monitoring and prognostic evaluation of chest malignancies, but also face many unknown challenges. In this article, the application of liquid biopsy in chest malignancies in recent years is elaborated in detail, which provides a reference for the formulation of clinical tumor prevention and diagnosis and treatment strategies.
Humans ; Circulating Tumor DNA/genetics* ; Liquid Biopsy/methods* ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating/pathology* ; China ; Biomarkers, Tumor

Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is a malignant tumor with strong invasiveness and high mortality. It has the characteristics of easy metastasis, fast growth, high degree of malignancy and strong invasiveness. The prognosis of patients is generally poor. The current clinical diagnosis of SCLC is mainly based on tissue biopsy, which is invasive, long cycle time and high cost. In recent years, liquid biopsy has been gradually applied because of its non-invasive, comprehensive and real-time characteristics that traditional tissue biopsy does not have. The main detection objects of liquid biopsy include circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and exosomes in peripheral blood. The application of liquid biopsy in the clinical treatment of SCLC will help clinicians to improve the detailed diagnosis of SCLC patients, as well as the timely control and response to the treatment response of patients.
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Biomarkers, Tumor ; Circulating Tumor DNA ; Humans ; Liquid Biopsy ; Lung Neoplasms/therapy* ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating/metabolism* ; Small Cell Lung Carcinoma/therapy*

The emergence of single-cell technology in recent years has made remarkable progress for understanding of biological process in various diseases including cancers. In particular of cancer, single-cell transcriptome analysis provides a powerful tool for comprehensive characterization of cancer cell subpopulations within a heterogeneous bulk populations. Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is a highly heterogeneous cancer and its molecular mechanism is extremely complex associated with a poor prognosis. To date, the molecular mechanisms of hepatocarcinogenesis remain unclear. Here, I review current status of single-cell transcriptome analysis for HCC, focusing on their application for cancer genomics, circulating tumor cells, cancer stem cells and tumor infiltrating cells in HCC.
Biological Processes ; Carcinoma, Hepatocellular ; Gene Expression Profiling ; Genomics ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Neoplastic Stem Cells ; Prognosis ; Sequence Analysis, RNA ; Transcriptome

OBJECTIVES: In the metastatic process, interactions between circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and the extracellular matrix or surrounding cells are required. β1-integrin may mediate these interactions. The aim of this study was to investigate whether β1-integrin is associated with the detection of CTCs in colorectal cancer. METHODS: We enrolled 30 patients with colorectal cancer (experimental group) and 30 patients with benign diseases (control group). Blood samples were obtained from each group, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) mRNA for CTCs marker and β1-integrin mRNA levels were estimated by using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and the results were compared between the two groups. RESULTS: CEA mRNA was detected more frequently in colorectal cancer patients than in control patients (P=0.008). CEA mRNA was significantly reduced after surgery in the colorectal cancer patients (P=0.032). β1-integrin mRNA was detected more in colorectal cancer patients than in the patients with benign diseases (P<0.001). In colorectal cancer patients, expression of β1-integrin mRNA was detected more for advanced-stage cancer than for early-stage cancer (P=0.033) and was significantly decreased after surgery (P<0.001). In addition, expression of β1-integrin mRNA was significantly associated with that of CEA mRNA in colorectal cancer patients (P=0.001). CONCLUSION: In conclusion, β1-integrin is a potential prognostic factor following surgical resection in colorectal cancer patients. β1-integrin may be a candidate for use as a marker for early detection of micrometastatic tumor cells and for monitoring the therapeutic response in colorectal cancer patients.
Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; Case-Control Studies* ; Colorectal Neoplasms* ; Extracellular Matrix ; Humans ; Integrins ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; RNA, Messenger

PURPOSE: Recent advances in molecular technology have made it possible to detect small numbers of circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood or bone marrow. Carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA) is an oncofetal antigen that is expressed in epithelial tumor cells. CEA mRNA may be a reliable marker for the detection of tumor cells in the peripheral blood of patients with epithelial cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: We analyzed the peripheral blood of 46 patients with gastric cancer who had undergone curative resection. The presence of CEA mRNA was serially monitored using RT-PCR (Preop, Post op 15 day, 2 months (m), 4 m, 6 m, 8 m, 10 m, 12 m). The clinical characteristics, serum CEA level and immunohistochemical staining of tumor tissue were also evaluated. Patients were followed up for 6 to 12 months. RESULTS: There was no significant relationship seen between CEA mRNA RT-PCR positivity in the peripheral blood and sex, stage, serum CEA level or immunohistochemical staining for CEA antigen, During follow up,eight patients experienced recurrence; were positve for CEA mRNA RT-PCR recurrence was seen in 66.7% (6/9) of the patients who before clinical recurrence as compared to 5.4% (2/37) of patients who were negative (p=0.0002). Serial changes of CEA mRNA RT-PCR correlated with clinical recurrence; 100% in the positively converted group (3/3), 0% in the negatively converted group(0/18), 50% in all positive group (3/6) and 10.5% in all negative group (2/19) experienced recurrence, respectively. CONCLUSION: RT-PCR analysis of CEA mRNA in the peripheral blood seems to be a promising tool for the early detection of micrometastatic circulating tumor cells in gastric cancer patients and may be useful in determining patients at high risk for recurrence. However, definitive correlation with recurrence certainly requires a longer follow up duration in further studies.
Bone Marrow ; Carcinoembryonic Antigen ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Recurrence ; RNA, Messenger* ; Stomach Neoplasms*

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are defined as tumor cells circulating in the peripheral blood of patients, shed from either the primary tumor or from its metastases. The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of breast cancer patients may account for the different steps in the biologic progression of the disease. The detection of microscopic disease in patients with breast cancer is imperative to prognosis and can predict the efficacy of targeted treatments. In general, there are two main methods for their detection. These are based on cytometric and nucleic acid manipulation. Both methods generally require an enrichment step to increase sensitivity of the assay. This step is based on either detection of specific surface markers using immuno-selection and/or on morphological features, such as cell size or density. We review the methods of detecting CTCs, their prognostic implications, and opportunities to exploit the properties of CTCs to develop personalized therapy.
Breast ; Breast Neoplasms ; Cell Size ; Humans ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Nucleic Acids ; Prognosis