Okabe Takahiro, Togo Shinsaku, Fujimoto Yuichi, Watanabe Junko, Sumiyoshi Issei, Orimo Akira, Takahashi Kazuhisa
Leading Center for the Development and Research of Cancer Medicine, Juntendo University Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan.
Division of Respiratory Medicine, Juntendo University Faculty of Medicine & Graduate School of Medicine, 2-1-1 Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-8421, Japan.
Cancers (Basel). 2020 Nov 30;12(12):3588. doi: 10.3390/cancers12123588.
Metastasis-related events are the primary cause of cancer-related deaths, and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have a pivotal role in metastatic relapse. CTCs include a variety of subtypes with different functional characteristics. Interestingly, the epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) markers expressed in CTCs are strongly associated with poor clinical outcome and related to the acquisition of circulating tumor stem cell (CTSC) features. Recent studies have revealed the existence of CTC clusters, also called circulating tumor microemboli (CTM), which have a high metastatic potential. In this review, we present current opinions regarding the clinical significance of CTCs and CTM with a mesenchymal phenotype as clinical surrogate markers, and we summarize the therapeutic strategy according to phenotype characterization of CTCs in various types of cancers for future precision medicine.
转移相关事件是癌症相关死亡的主要原因，循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）在转移复发中起关键作用。CTC包括具有不同功能特征的多种亚型。有趣的是，CTCs中表达的上皮-间质转化（EMT）标志物与不良临床结局密切相关，并与循环肿瘤干细胞（CTSC）特征的获得有关。最近的研究揭示了CTC簇的存在，也称为循环肿瘤微栓子（CTM），其具有高转移潜能。在本综述中，我们阐述了关于具有间充质表型的CTC和CTM作为临床替代标志物的临床意义的当前观点，并根据各种癌症中CTC的表型特征总结了治疗策略，以用于未来的精准医学。
