Chen Qiong, Zou Jueyao, He Yong, Pan Yanhong, Yang Gejun, Zhao Han, Huang Ying, Zhao Yang, Wang Aiyun, Chen Wenxing, Lu Yin
Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Pharmacology and Safety Evaluation of Chinese Materia Medica, School of Pharmacy, Nanjing University of Chinese Medicine, Nanjing, China.
Department of Pharmacy, The Second Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Nanjing, China.
Front Oncol. 2022 Aug 18;12:944487. doi: 10.3389/fonc.2022.944487. eCollection 2022.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that survive in the blood are playing an important role in the metastasis process of tumor. In addition, they have become a tool for tumor diagnosis, prognosis and recurrence monitoring. CTCs can exist in the blood as individual cells or as clumps of aggregated cells. In recent years, more and more studies have shown that clustered CTCs have stronger metastasis ability compared to single CTCs. With the deepening of studies, scholars have found that cancer cells can combine not only with each other, but also with non-tumor cells present in the blood, such as neutrophils, platelets, etc. At the same time, it was confirmed that non-tumor cells bound to CTCs maintain the survival and proliferation of cancer cells through a variety of ways, thus promoting the occurrence and development of tumor. In this review, we collected information on tumorigenesis induced by CTC clusters to make a summary and a discussion about them. Although CTC clusters have recently been considered as a key role in the transition process, many characteristics of them remain to be deeply explored. A detailed understanding of their vulnerability can prospectively pave the way for new inhibitors for metastasis.
存活于血液中的循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）在肿瘤转移过程中发挥着重要作用。此外，它们已成为肿瘤诊断、预后及复发监测的一种工具。CTCs 可作为单个细胞或聚集细胞团存在于血液中。近年来，越来越多的研究表明，与单个 CTCs 相比，聚集的 CTCs 具有更强的转移能力。随着研究的深入，学者们发现癌细胞不仅可以相互结合，还能与血液中存在的非肿瘤细胞结合，如中性粒细胞、血小板等。同时，已证实与 CTCs 结合的非肿瘤细胞通过多种方式维持癌细胞的存活和增殖，从而促进肿瘤的发生和发展。在本综述中，我们收集了有关 CTC 簇诱导肿瘤发生的信息，并对其进行总结和讨论。尽管 CTC 簇最近被认为在转移过程中起关键作用，但其许多特性仍有待深入探索。对其脆弱性的详细了解有望为新型转移抑制剂的研发铺平道路。
