Circulating Tumour Cell Biology Reveals New Cancer Vulnerabilities and Liquid Biopsy Opportunities
This Nature Reviews Cancer paper reviewed how technological advances have enabled the identification of CTC clusters, CTC-immune cell interactions, and CTC-stromal cell partnerships that actively drive metastasis. These biological insights open new therapeutic vulnerabilities and inform the design of next-generation liquid biopsy assays that go beyond simple CTC enumeration to functional and phenotypic characterisation.
The original study
Biology, vulnerabilities and clinical applications of circulating tumour cells.
- Authors
- Ring A, Nguyen-Sträuli BD, Wicki A, Aceto N
- Journal
- Nature reviews. Cancer
- Type
- Journal Article, Review, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
- PMID
- 36494603
Original abstract
In recent years, exceptional technological advances have enabled the identification and interrogation of rare circulating tumour cells (CTCs) from blood samples of patients, leading to new fields of research and fostering the promise for paradigm-changing, liquid biopsy-based clinical applications. Analysis of CTCs has revealed distinct biological phenotypes, including the presence of CTC clusters and the interaction between CTCs and immune or stromal cells, impacting metastasis formation and providing new insights into cancer vulnerabilities. Here we review the progress made in understanding biological features of CTCs and provide insight into exploiting these developments to design future clinical tools for improving the diagnosis and treatment of cancer.