Zhou Zhengdong, Cai Songhua, Zhou Xiaoyu, Zhao Wei, Sun Jiayu, Zhou Zhihang, Yang Zihan, Li Wenxiu, Wang Zhe, Zou Heng, Fu Huayang, Wang Xicheng, Khoo Bee Luan, Yang Mengsu
Department of Precision Diagnostic and Therapeutic Technology, City University of Hong Kong Shenzhen Futian Research Institute, Shenzhen, 518057, China.
Department of Biomedical Sciences, Tung Biomedical Sciences Centre, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, 999077, China.
Small Methods. 2025 Jul;9(7):e2401026. doi: 10.1002/smtd.202401026. Epub 2024 Dec 27.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) play a pivotal role in cancer metastasis and hold considerable potential for clinical diagnosis, therapeutic monitoring, and prognostic evaluation. Nevertheless, the limited quantity of CTCs in liquid biopsy samples poses challenges for comprehensive downstream analysis. In vitro culture of CTCs can effectively address the issue of insufficient CTC numbers. Furthermore, research based on CTC cell lines serves as a valuable complement to traditional cancer cell line-based research. While numerous reports exist on CTC in vitro culture and even the establishment of CTC cell lines, the methods used vary, leading to disparate culture outcomes. This review presents the developmental history and current status of CTC in vitro culture research. Additionally, the culture strategies applied in different methods and analyzed the impact of various steps on culture outcomes are compared. Overall, the review indicates that while the short-term culture of CTCs is relatively straightforward, long-term culture success has been achieved for various specific cancer types but still faces challenges. Further optimization of efficient and widely applicable culture strategies is needed. Additionally, ongoing applications of CTC in vitro culture are summarized, highlighting the potential of expanded CTCs for drug susceptibility testing and as therapeutic tools in personalized treatment.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）在癌症转移中起着关键作用，在临床诊断、治疗监测和预后评估方面具有巨大潜力。然而，液体活检样本中CTCs数量有限，给全面的下游分析带来了挑战。CTCs的体外培养可以有效解决CTCs数量不足的问题。此外，基于CTCs细胞系的研究是对传统基于癌细胞系研究的重要补充。虽然关于CTCs体外培养甚至CTCs细胞系建立的报道众多，但所采用的方法各不相同，导致培养结果也存在差异。本文综述了CTCs体外培养研究的发展历程和现状。此外，还比较了不同方法中应用的培养策略，并分析了各个步骤对培养结果的影响。总体而言，综述表明，虽然CTCs的短期培养相对简单，但针对各种特定癌症类型已实现长期培养成功，但仍面临挑战。需要进一步优化高效且广泛适用的培养策略。此外，还总结了CTCs体外培养的当前应用，强调了扩增后的CTCs在药物敏感性测试以及作为个性化治疗中的治疗工具方面的潜力。
