Circulating Tumor Cells: State-of-the-art Update on Technologies and Clinical Applications

Overview

Journal Curr Hematol Malig Rep

Publisher Current Science

Specialties Hematology
Oncology

Date 2019 Aug 1

PMID 31364034

Citations 9

Authors

Kristofor Yap

Evan N Cohen

James M Reuben

Joseph D Khoury

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Purpose Of Review: Circulating tumor cells represent rare events in the peripheral blood of patients with cancer that can provide insight into tumor biology. CTC enumeration, isolation, and analysis represent liquid biopsy approaches whose role in the management of patients with cancer continues to evolve in the era of precision medicine. This review presents an overview of technologies central to studying CTCs.

Recent Findings: Technologies for CTC isolation can be divided into two categories: label-dependent and label-independent. Label-dependent techniques utilize biological properties such as cell surface proteins, while label-independent techniques utilize distinctive physical properties such as cell size, density, and plasticity. Advances in microfluidics designs as well as hybrid combinations of label-dependent and label-independent techniques have resulted in unprecedented improvements in CTC isolation, permitting not only the detection and enumeration of these rare events but also providing the means for studying them and exploring them as a new dimension of cancer biomarkers. With advances in tools for isolating and studying CTCs in hand, questions regarding the clinical utility of CTC enumeration in peripheral blood, detection of CTC-associated biomarkers, and analysis of dynamic changes in CTCs during the course of cancer therapy represent exciting new opportunities for cancer research.

Citing Articles

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