Abstract
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), which are now defined as the “break away” cancer cells that derive from primary- or metastatic-tumor sites and present in the bloodstream, are considered to be the precursors of metastases. Considering the key role of CTCs in cancer progression, researchers are committed to analyze them in the past decades and many technologies have been proposed for achieving CTCs isolation and characterization with highly sensitivity and specificity until now. On this basis, clinicians gradually realize the clinical values of CTCs' detection through various clinical studies. As a “liquid biopsy,” CTCs' detection and measurement can supply important information for predicting patient's survival, monitoring of response/resistance, assessment of minimal residual disease, evaluating distant metastasis, and sometimes, customizing therapy choices. Nowadays, eliminating CTCs of the blood circulation has been regarded as a promising method to prevent tumor metastasis. However, research on CTCs still faces many challenges. Herein, we present an overview to discuss the current concept of CTCs, summarize the available techniques for CTCs detection, and provide an update on the clinical significance of CTCs in gastrointestinal malignancies, especially focus on gastric and colorectal cancer.
Highlights
According to the GLOBOCAN 2018 reports, cancer is estimated to rank as the leading cause of death worldwide [1]
We aim to outline the current status of Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detection techniques, the clinical implications, and the limitations and opportunities in GI cancers, including gastric cancer (GC) and colorectal cancer (CRC); we provide new insights into the applications of CTCs detection to guide clinical practice
The results found that postoperative CTCs-positive but not preoperative CTCs-positive is an independent indicator of poor prognosis for CRC patients, and the patients with preoperative CTCspositive that normalized after surgery have similar outcomes to patients with preoperative CTC-negative [26]
Summary
According to the GLOBOCAN 2018 reports, cancer is estimated to rank as the leading cause of death worldwide [1]. A series of meta-analyses conducted by our group provided strong evidence for the prognostic significance of CTCs detection in GI malignancies, which showed that CTCs-positive predicts a poor patient prognosis and unfavorable clinicopathological factors for both GC and CRC, regardless of whether the detection method was RT-PCR, CellSearch or cytological methods [25, 27, 49, 93] In these processes, an unneglectable fact is that CTCs detection at different time points during treatment might exhibit different prognostic significance [14]. Advanced EGC [106] Advanced EGC [60] Advanced GC [136] Advanced GC [100] Resectable GC [148] Advanced CRC [121] Non-metastatic CRC [63] Non-metastatic CRC [138] mCRC [77]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call