Institute of Tumour Biology, Centre of Experimental Medicine, University Medical Centre Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.
Trends Mol Med. 2010 Sep;16(9):398-406. doi: 10.1016/j.molmed.2010.07.001. Epub 2010 Jul 29.
Ultrasensitive methods have been recently developed to detect circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood and disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) in the bone marrow (BM) of cancer patients. Studies with these new methods indicate that BM is a common homing organ and a reservoir for DTCs derived from various organ sites including breast, prostate, lung and colon. Peripheral blood analyses, however, are more convenient for patients than invasive BM sampling and many research groups are currently assessing the clinical utility of CTCs for prognosis and monitoring response to systemic therapies. Moreover, molecular analyses of CTCs/DTCs have provided new insights into the biology of metastasis with important implications for the clinical management of cancer patients.
最近已经开发出了超灵敏的方法来检测癌症患者外周血中的循环肿瘤细胞 (CTCs) 和骨髓中的播散肿瘤细胞 (DTCs)。这些新方法的研究表明，骨髓是 DTC 的常见归巢器官和储存库，这些 DTC 来源于包括乳腺、前列腺、肺和结肠在内的各种器官部位。然而，与侵入性骨髓采样相比，外周血分析对患者更为方便，许多研究小组目前正在评估 CTCs 用于预后和监测系统治疗反应的临床实用性。此外，CTC/DTC 的分子分析为转移生物学提供了新的见解，对癌症患者的临床管理具有重要意义。
