Agarwal Ashutosh, Balic Marija, El-Ashry Dorraya, Cote Richard J
Cancer J. 2018 Mar/Apr;24(2):70-77. doi: 10.1097/PPO.0000000000000310.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) play a central role in tumor dissemination and metastases, which are ultimately responsible for most cancer deaths. Technologies that allow for identification and enumeration of rare CTC from cancer patients' blood have already established CTC as an important clinical biomarker for cancer diagnosis and prognosis. Indeed, current efforts to robustly characterize CTC as well as the associated cells of the tumor microenvironment such as circulating cancer associated fibroblasts (cCAF), are poised to unmask key insights into the metastatic process. Ultimately, the clinical utility of CTC will be fully realized once CTC can be reliably cultured and proliferated as a biospecimen for precision management of cancer patients, and for discovery of novel therapeutics. In this review, we highlight the latest CTC capture and analyses technologies, and discuss in vitro strategies for culturing and propagating CTC.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）在肿瘤扩散和转移中起着核心作用，而肿瘤扩散和转移最终是导致大多数癌症死亡的原因。能够从癌症患者血液中识别和计数罕见循环肿瘤细胞的技术，已将循环肿瘤细胞确立为癌症诊断和预后的重要临床生物标志物。事实上，目前为全面表征循环肿瘤细胞以及肿瘤微环境中的相关细胞（如循环癌相关成纤维细胞（cCAF））所做的努力，有望揭示转移过程的关键见解。最终，一旦循环肿瘤细胞能够作为癌症患者精准管理以及发现新型疗法的生物样本进行可靠培养和增殖，循环肿瘤细胞的临床应用价值将得到充分实现。在本综述中，我们重点介绍了循环肿瘤细胞捕获和分析的最新技术，并讨论了体外培养和扩增循环肿瘤细胞的策略。
