Circulating Tumour Cells Move Beyond Counting to Multi-Omic Characterisation
Circulating tumour cells have evolved from simple enumeration as a prognostic tool to a rich biosource analysable at the genome, proteome, transcriptome, and secretome levels, enabling functional studies in vitro and in vivo. This review describes the biological principles governing CTC behaviour in metastasis and highlights emerging clinical applications including real-time treatment monitoring as a minimally invasive alternative to tissue biopsy.
The original study
Molecular and Functional Characterization of Circulating Tumor Cells: From Discovery to Clinical Application.
- Authors
- Cortés-Hernández LE, Eslami-S Z, Pantel K, Alix-Panabières C
- Journal
- Clinical chemistry
- Type
- Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't, Review
- PMID
- 31811001
Original abstract
BACKGROUND: One of the objectives for the liquid biopsy is to become a surrogate to tissue biopsies in diagnosis of cancer as a minimally invasive method, with clinical utility in real-time follow-ups of patients. To achieve this goal, it is still necessary to achieve a better understanding of the mechanisms of cancer and the biological principles that govern its behavior, particularly with regard to circulating tumor cells (CTCs). CONTENT: The isolation, enumeration, detection, and characterization of CTCs have already proven to provide relevant clinical information about patient prognosis and treatment prediction. Moreover, CTCs can be analyzed at the genome, proteome, transcriptome, and secretome levels and can also be used for functional studies in in vitro and in vivo models. These features, taken together, have made CTCs a very valuable biosource. SUMMARY: To further advance the field and discover new clinical applications for CTCs, several studies have been performed to learn more about these cells and better understand the biology of metastasis. In this review, we describe the recent literature on the topic of liquid biopsy with particular focus on the biology of CTCs.