Department of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA.
Cancer Cell. 2013 May 13;23(5):573-81. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2013.04.017.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) are increasingly recognized for their potential utility in disease monitoring and therapeutic targeting. The clinical application of CTC/DTC requires better understanding of the biological mechanisms behind tumor dissemination, the survival of DTCs, and their activation to aggressive growth from dormancy. Recent research using animal models of DTCs and CTCs have provided novel insights into these processes. Here, we discuss these findings in the context of results obtained from the clinical analyses of CTCs and DTCs, which demonstrate that the animal models mimic, in many aspects, the complex situation in patients.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）和播散肿瘤细胞（DTCs）因其在疾病监测和治疗靶向方面的潜在应用而越来越受到重视。CTC/DTC 的临床应用需要更好地了解肿瘤播散、DTC 存活及其从休眠状态向侵袭性生长激活背后的生物学机制。最近使用 DTC 和 CTC 动物模型的研究为这些过程提供了新的见解。在这里，我们根据从 CTC 和 DTC 的临床分析中获得的结果讨论这些发现，这些结果表明，动物模型在许多方面模拟了患者的复杂情况。
