Tumorbiology Laboratory, Clinic for Gynaecology and Obstetrics, Campus Innenstadt, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
Histol Histopathol. 2012 Jul;27(7):855-64. doi: 10.14670/HH-27.855.
The most important predictor for disease-free and overall survival of breast cancer patients is the presence of axillary lymph node metastasis. For surveillance during recurrence-free follow-up or in metastatic disease no marker is available at the moment. Several trials have shown the prognostic relevance of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in early and metastatic breast cancers. Indeed, only CTC that exhibit specific molecular characteristics including stem cell characteristics, could be able to create new metastasis. Hormone therapy or anti-erbB2 therapies are prescribed according to the hormone (ERα/PR expression) and erbB2 status of the initial tumor. Nonetheless, it appears that the CTC, and consequently the metastatic cells, may have a very different hormone and erbB2 status. An optimal individualized treatment could then be obtained by characterizing ERα and erbB2 status in the CTC and comparing it to the primary tumor.
乳腺癌患者无病生存和总生存的最重要预测因素是腋窝淋巴结转移的存在。目前在无复发随访或转移性疾病期间，尚无监测的标志物。几项试验已经表明循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）在早期和转移性乳腺癌中的预后相关性。实际上，只有表现出特定分子特征（包括干细胞特征）的 CTC 才能够形成新的转移。根据初始肿瘤的激素（ERα/PR 表达）和 erbB2 状态，开具激素治疗或抗 erbB2 治疗。尽管如此，CTC 似乎具有非常不同的激素和 erbB2 状态，而转移细胞也可能如此。通过对 CTC 中的 ERα 和 erbB2 状态进行特征分析，并将其与原发性肿瘤进行比较，就可以获得最佳的个体化治疗。
