Roche-Chus Joint Unit, Translational Medical Oncology Group (Oncomet), Health Research Institute of Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Adv Exp Med Biol. 2020;1220:1-10. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-35805-1_1.
Breast cancer metastasis is a complex multistep process during which tumor cells undergo structural and functional changes that allow them to move away from the primary tumor and disseminate to distant organs and tissues. Despite the inefficiency of this process, some populations of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which are those cells responsible of metastases formation, are able to survive in blood circulation and grow into secondary tumors. Metastatic breast cancer remains an incurable disease, and the phenomenon of metastasis represents the larger cause of death in these patients. The application of liquid biopsy techniques and the advancements in the field have shown the prognostic value of CTCs, suggesting the importance that CTCs analyses may have in the clinic. However, their implementation in routine clinic has not been yet achieved due to the yet small body of evidence showing their clinical utility. This introductory chapter will revise the key aspects of breast cancer metastasis and discuss the importance of CTC analyses in the management of breast cancer patients.
乳腺癌转移是一个复杂的多步骤过程，在此过程中，肿瘤细胞发生结构和功能的变化，使其能够从原发肿瘤脱离并扩散到远处的器官和组织。尽管这个过程效率低下，但一些循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）群体，即那些负责转移形成的细胞，能够在血液循环中存活并生长成继发性肿瘤。转移性乳腺癌仍然是一种无法治愈的疾病，转移现象是这些患者死亡的主要原因。液体活检技术的应用和该领域的进步表明了 CTCs 的预后价值，提示 CTCs 分析在临床中的重要性。然而，由于目前证据还很少，表明其临床实用性，它们在常规临床中的应用尚未实现。本章将综述乳腺癌转移的关键方面，并讨论 CTC 分析在乳腺癌患者管理中的重要性。
