Department of Visceral- and Transplantation Surgery, Department of Surgery, University Hospital Zurich, 8091 Zurich, Switzerland.
J Oncol. 2010;2010:392652. doi: 10.1155/2010/392652. Epub 2009 Nov 5.
Since their introduction more than 50 years by Engell, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been evaluated in cancer patients and their detection has been correlated with clinical outcome, in esophageal, gastric, and colorectal cancer. With the availability of refined technologies, the identification of CTCs from peripheral blood is emerging as a useful tool for the detection of malignancy, monitoring disease progression, and measuring response to therapy. However, increasing evidence suggests a variety of factors to be responsible for disease progression. The analysis of a single CTC marker is therefore unlikely to accurately predict progression of disease with sufficient resolution and reproducibility. Here we discuss the current concept of CTCs, summarize the available techniques for their detection and characterization, and aim to provide a comprehensive update on the clinical implications of CTCs in gastrointestinal (GI) malignancies.
自 50 多年前 Engell 首次引入循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）以来，人们一直在癌症患者中评估其存在，并且已经将其检测与临床结果相关联，包括食管癌、胃癌和结直肠癌。随着精细技术的出现，从外周血中识别 CTC 正在成为检测恶性肿瘤、监测疾病进展和衡量治疗反应的有用工具。然而，越来越多的证据表明，多种因素可能导致疾病进展。因此，分析单个 CTC 标志物不太可能具有足够的分辨率和可重复性来准确预测疾病的进展。在这里，我们讨论了 CTC 的当前概念，总结了用于其检测和表征的现有技术，并旨在全面更新 CTC 在胃肠道（GI）恶性肿瘤中的临床意义。
