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

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

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

Humans ; Jugular Veins ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Thyroid Neoplasms ; complications

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

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.
Biology ; Colon ; Humans ; Lung ; Lung Neoplasms ; Neoplasm Metastasis ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Prognosis

BACKGROUND: Circulating tumor cell (CTC) analysis is a promising new diagnostic field for estimating the risk for metastatic relapse and metastatic progression in patients with cancer. CONTENT: Different analytical systems for CTC isolation and detection have been developed as immunocytochemical and molecular assays, most including separation steps by size or biological characteristics, such as expression of epithelial- or cancer-specific markers. Recent technical advancements in CTC detection and characterization include methods based on multiplex reverse-transcription quantitative PCR and approaches based on imaging and microfilter and microchip devices. New areas of research are directed toward developing novel assays for CTC molecular characterization. QC is an important issue for CTC analysis, and standardization of micrometastatic cell detection and characterization methodologies is important for the incorporation of CTCs into prospective clinical trials to test their clinical utility. The molecular characterization of CTCs can provide important information on the molecular and biological nature of these cells, such as the status of hormone receptors and epidermal and other growth factor receptor family members, and indications of stem-cell characteristics. This information is important for the identification of therapeutic targets and resistance mechanisms in CTCs as well as for the stratification of patients and real-time monitoring of systemic therapies. SUMMARY: CTC analysis can be used as a liquid biopsy approach for prognostic and predictive purposes in breast and other cancers. In this review we focus on state-of-the-art technology platforms for CTC isolation, imaging, and detection; QC of CTC analysis; and ongoing challenges for the molecular characterization of CTCs.
Biopsy ; Breast ; Humans ; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; Population Characteristics ; Recurrence