Jacob Karine, Sollier Caroline, Jabado Nada
Department of Pediatrics, Montreal Children's Hospital, McGill University Health Center, Montreal, Canada.
Expert Rev Proteomics. 2007 Dec;4(6):741-56. doi: 10.1586/14789450.4.6.741.
Disseminated malignancy is responsible for the vast majority of cancer-related deaths. During this process, circulating tumor cells (CTC) are generated, spread from the primary tumor, colonize distant organs and lead to overt metastatic disease. CTC are essential for establishing metastasis; however, they are not sufficient as this process is highly inefficient and most will fail to grow in target sites. Several CTC die during migration while others remain dormant for several years and very few grow into macrometastases. CTC have been well documented in the bloodstream of cancer patients; however, the clinical relevance of this detection is still the subject of controversies and their biology is poorly understood. Indeed, available markers fail to distinguish between subgroups of CTC, and several current methods lack sensitivity, specificity or reproducibility in CTC characterization and detection. The advent of more precise technologies is renewing the interest in CTC biology. We will review herein recent findings on CTC biology, on the role of host-tumor interactions in CTC shedding and implantation, available methods of CTC detection and future perspectives for the molecular characterization of the CTC subset(s) responsible for the development of metastasis. Ultimately, understanding CTC biology and host-tumor 'complementarities' will help define metastasis-related biomarkers providing formidable and tailored novel therapeutic targets.
播散性恶性肿瘤是绝大多数癌症相关死亡的原因。在此过程中，循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）产生，从原发肿瘤扩散，在远处器官定植并导致明显的转移性疾病。CTC对于建立转移至关重要；然而，它们并不足够，因为这个过程效率非常低，大多数CTC在靶位点无法生长。一些CTC在迁移过程中死亡，而其他一些则会休眠数年，只有极少数会发展为大转移灶。癌症患者血液中的CTC已有充分记录；然而，这种检测的临床相关性仍然存在争议，其生物学特性也知之甚少。事实上，现有的标志物无法区分CTC亚组，目前的几种方法在CTC表征和检测方面缺乏敏感性、特异性或可重复性。更精确技术的出现重新激发了人们对CTC生物学的兴趣。我们将在此回顾关于CTC生物学、宿主-肿瘤相互作用在CTC脱落和植入中的作用、现有的CTC检测方法以及负责转移发展的CTC亚组分子表征的未来前景的最新发现。最终，了解CTC生物学和宿主-肿瘤“互补性”将有助于定义与转移相关的生物标志物，提供强大且量身定制的新型治疗靶点。
