Clinical relevance associated to the analysis of circulating tumour cells in patients with solid tumours.
The distant growth of tumour cells escaping from primary tumours, a process termed metastasis, represents the leading cause of death among patients affected by malignant neoplasias from breast and colon. During the metastasis process, cancer cells liberated from primary tumour tissue, also termed circulating tumour cells (CTCs), travel through the circulatory and/or lymphatic systems to reach distant organs. The early detection and the genotypic and phenotypic characterisation of such CTCs could represent a powerful diagnostic tool of the disease, and could also be considered an important predictive and prognostic marker of disease progression and treatment response. In this article we discuss the potential relevance in the clinic of monitoring CTCs from patients suffering from solid epithelial tumours, with emphasis on the impact of such analyses as a predictive marker for treatment response.
Serrano Fernádez
María José
MJ
Center GENYO (Pfizer-University of Granada-Andalucian Goverment Center for Genomics and Oncological Research), Armilla, Granada, Spain. mjose.serrano@genyo.es
Alvarez Merino
Juan Carlos
JC
Martínez Zubiaurre
Iñigo
I
Fernández García
Ana
A
Sánchez Rovira
Pedro
P
Lorente Acosta
José Antonio
JA
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis
D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor