Jeong Keun-Yeong, Kim Eun Kyung, Park Min Hee, Kim Hwan Mook
R&D Division, Metimedi Pharmaceuticals Co., 263, Central-ro, Yeonsu-Gu, Incheon 22006, Korea.
Gachon Institute of Pharmaceutical Science, Gachon University, 191, Hambangmoe-ro, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 21936, Korea.
Diagnostics (Basel). 2018 Apr 11;8(2):23. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics8020023.
Various methods are available for cancer screening, and the methods are performed depending on the origin site of cancer. Among these methods, biopsy followed by medical imaging is the most common. After cancer progression is determined, an optimal treatment-such as surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy-is selected. A new assay has been developed that detects circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Tracking changes in CTCs may reveal important tumoral sensitivity information or resistance patterns to specific regimens and prompt changes in therapy on a personalized basis. Characterization of CTCs at the DNA, RNA, and protein levels is important for gaining insight for clinical applications. A small number of CTCs can be analyzed to obtain genome information such as the progression of cancer including metastasis, even in a single cluster. Although many clinical studies, particularly CTC enumeration and detection of specific oncogene expression, have increased the success rate of diagnosis and predicting prognosis, there is no consensus regarding the technical approaches and various aspects of the methodology, making it difficult to standardize optimal methods for CTC analysis. However, ongoing technological advances are currently being achieved and large-scale clinical studies are being conducted. Applying CTC analysis in the clinic would be very useful for advancing diagnosis, prognosis prediction, and therapeutics.
有多种癌症筛查方法，这些方法根据癌症的起源部位进行。在这些方法中，活检后进行医学成像最为常见。确定癌症进展后，选择最佳治疗方法，如手术、化疗和/或放疗。一种检测循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）的新检测方法已经开发出来。追踪CTC的变化可能会揭示重要的肿瘤敏感性信息或对特定治疗方案的耐药模式，并促使个性化治疗方案的改变。在DNA、RNA和蛋白质水平对CTC进行表征对于临床应用的深入了解很重要。即使在单个簇中，也可以分析少量的CTC以获得基因组信息，如癌症进展包括转移情况。尽管许多临床研究，特别是CTC计数和特定癌基因表达的检测，提高了诊断成功率和预后预测能力，但在技术方法和方法的各个方面尚未达成共识，这使得难以标准化CTC分析的最佳方法。然而，目前正在取得持续的技术进步，并正在进行大规模临床研究。在临床中应用CTC分析对于推进诊断、预后预测和治疗将非常有用。
