Medical Laboratory, Northern Jiangsu People's Hospital and Clinical Medical College of Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225001, China.
Med Hypotheses. 2013 Jun;80(6):833-6. doi: 10.1016/j.mehy.2013.03.027. Epub 2013 Apr 12.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have the potential to provide a surrogate for "real-time biopsy" of tumor biological activity. Enumeration and molecular characterization of CTCs in pancreatic cancer could play an important role in diagnosis, predicting the risk for tumor recurrence, and providing novel target therapy biomarkers. CTCs can disseminate into peripheral blood in the preinvasive and early stages of pancreatic cancer. In view of these facts, we propose that identification and molecular analysis of the malignant characteristics of CTCs may serve as a "liquid biopsy" in pancreatic cancer for early diagnosis.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）有可能提供肿瘤生物活性“实时活检”的替代物。在胰腺癌中对 CTCs 的计数和分子特征分析可能在诊断、预测肿瘤复发风险以及提供新的靶向治疗生物标志物方面发挥重要作用。CTCs 可以在胰腺癌的侵袭前和早期阶段播散到外周血中。鉴于这些事实，我们提出鉴定和分析 CTCs 的恶性特征可作为胰腺癌的“液体活检”用于早期诊断。
