Wu Tong, Cheng Bin, Fu Liwu
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Institute (T.W., L.F.); and Department of Oral Medicine, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China (T.W., B.C.).
State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Institute (T.W., L.F.); and Department of Oral Medicine, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China (T.W., B.C.)
Mol Pharmacol. 2017 Sep;92(3):232-239. doi: 10.1124/mol.116.108142. Epub 2017 Mar 29.
Screening for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been identified as one approach to ultrasensitive liquid biopsy in real-time monitoring of cancer patients. The detection of CTCs in peripheral blood from cancer patients is promising as a diagnostic tool; however, the application of CTCs in therapeutic treatment still faces serious challenges with respect to specificity and sensitivity. Here, we review the significant roles of CTCs in metastasis and the strengths and weaknesses of the currently available methods for CTC detection and characterization. Moreover, we discuss the clinical application of CTCs as markers for patient prognosis, and we specifically focus on the application of CTCs as indicators in cancer pharmacotherapy. Characterization of the detected CTCs will provide new biologic perspectives and clinical applications for the treatment of cancer patients with metastasis.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）筛查已被视为一种用于对癌症患者进行实时监测的超灵敏液体活检方法。检测癌症患者外周血中的CTC作为一种诊断工具具有广阔前景；然而，CTC在治疗中的应用在特异性和敏感性方面仍面临严峻挑战。在此，我们综述了CTC在转移中的重要作用以及当前可用的CTC检测和表征方法的优缺点。此外，我们讨论了CTC作为患者预后标志物的临床应用，并特别关注CTC在癌症药物治疗中的指标应用。对检测到的CTC进行表征将为治疗有转移的癌症患者提供新的生物学视角和临床应用。
