Muscarella Lucia Anna, Mazza Tommaso, Fabrizio Federico Pio, Sparaneo Angelo, D'Alessandro Vito, Tancredi Antonio, Trombetta Domenico, Centra Flavia, Muscarella Silvana Pia, Di Micco Concetta Martina, Rossi Antonio
Laboratory of Oncology, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, 71013 Foggia, Italy.
Unit of Bioinformatic, Fondazione IRCCS Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza, 71013 Foggia, Italy.
Cancers (Basel). 2021 Mar 16;13(6):1339. doi: 10.3390/cancers13061339.
No well-established prognostic or predictive molecular markers of small-cell lung cancer (SCLC) are currently available; therefore, all patients receive standard treatment. Adequate quantities and quality of tissue samples are frequently unavailable to perform a molecular analysis of SCLC, which appears more heterogeneous and dynamic than expected. The implementation of techniques to study circulating tumor cells could offer a suitable alternative to expand the knowledge of the molecular basis of a tumor. In this context, the advantage of SCLC circulating cells to express some specific markers to be explored in blood as circulating transcripts could offer a great opportunity in distinguishing and managing different SCLC phenotypes. Here, we present a summary of published data and new findings about the detection methods and potential application of a group of neuroendocrine related transcripts in the peripheral blood of SCLC patients. In the era of new treatments, easy and rapid detection of informative biomarkers in blood warrants further investigation, since it represents an important option to obtain essential information for disease monitoring and/or better treatment choices.
目前尚无成熟的小细胞肺癌（SCLC）预后或预测分子标志物；因此，所有患者均接受标准化治疗。通常无法获得足够数量和质量的组织样本用于SCLC的分子分析，SCLC似乎比预期的更加异质性和动态性。研究循环肿瘤细胞技术的应用可能为拓展肿瘤分子基础的认识提供合适的替代方法。在这种情况下，SCLC循环细胞表达一些特定标志物作为循环转录本在血液中被探索的优势，可能为区分和管理不同的SCLC表型提供巨大机会。在此，我们总结了已发表的数据以及关于SCLC患者外周血中一组神经内分泌相关转录本的检测方法和潜在应用的新发现。在新治疗时代，血液中信息性生物标志物的简便快速检测值得进一步研究，因为它是获取疾病监测和/或更好治疗选择所需基本信息的重要选择。
