Utility of Circulating Tumor Cells in Oncology

摘要

The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the peripheral blood of patients with solid malignancies has broad clinical implications. CTCs were first described by Ashworth in 1869 from an autopsy of a patient with advanced metastatic cancer. Given their potential clinical utility, several methodologies for CTC detection have been developed. The most widely used and Food and Drug Administration-approved method of CTC detection is the CellSearch system (Veridex, Warren, PA), which relies on immunoaffinity capture of CTCs that express the epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) on their surface. This system has been applied to colorectal and pancreatic cancers demonstrating correlation between detection of CTCs and tumor stage and clinical prognosis (Table 1).