Abstract
Lung cancer affects over 1. 8 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of cancer related mortality globally. Currently, diagnosis of lung cancer involves a combination of imaging and invasive biopsies to confirm histopathology. Non-invasive diagnostic techniques under investigation include “liquid biopsies” through a simple blood draw to develop predictive and prognostic biomarkers. A better understanding of circulating tumor cell (CTC) dissemination mechanisms offers promising potential for the development of techniques to assist in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Enumeration and characterization of CTCs has the potential to act as a prognostic biomarker and to identify novel drug targets for a precision medicine approach to lung cancer care. This review will focus on the current status of CTCs and their potential diagnostic and prognostic utility in this setting.
Highlights
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men and women worldwide (1)
Patients with small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) have on average 10 times more circulating tumor cell (CTC) than patients with any other tumor type (32–34). Molecular targeted therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutants and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors in ALK rearranged non-small cell carcinoma (NSCLC) patients have recently advanced the management of lung cancer for a limited proportion of patients (35–39)
The clinical significance of CTCs is yet to be established, advances in CTC detection and single-cell profiling have significantly improved our knowledge of underlying mechanisms of the evolution and dissemination of cancer and is progressively being translated to clinical studies
Summary
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer-related mortality among men and women worldwide (1). Patients with SCLC have on average 10 times more CTCs than patients with any other tumor type (32–34) Molecular targeted therapies such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutants and anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK) inhibitors in ALK rearranged NSCLC patients have recently advanced the management of lung cancer for a limited proportion of patients (35–39). Use of CTCs as a liquid biopsy is promising for serial assessment of tumor evolution during the course of the disease and during systemic treatment in a less invasive, real-time manner, by a simple blood draw (19, 43) This liquid biopsy provides potential for the early diagnosis of cancer and valuable insights into tumor heterogeneity and genomic diversity for the early diagnosis of cancer and guidance of clinical treatment (44, 45). A sensitive and unbiased isolation method to capture CTCs is essential to provide tumoral material for analysis and potentially drive treatment decisions (46, 47)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 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 callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
