title: Circulating tumour cells in clinical practice: Methods of detection and possible characterization.
abstract: Circulating Tumour Cells (CTCs) can be released from the primary tumour into the bloodstream and may colonize distant organs giving rise to metastasis. The presence of CTCs in the blood has been documented more than a century ago, and in the meanwhile various methods have been described for their detection. Most of them require an initial enrichment step, since CTCs are a very rare event. The different technologies and also the differences among the screened populations make the clinical significance of CTCs detection difficult to interprete. Here we will review the different assays up to now available for CTC detection and analysis. Moreover, we will focus on the relevance of the clinical data, generated so far and based on the CTCs analysis. Since the vast majority of data have been produced in breast cancer patients, the review will focus especially on this malignancy.
authors.affiliation: Beckman Coulter Biomedical GmbH, Sauerbruchstrasse 50 - 81377 Munich, Germany. malunni@beckman.com
authors.forename: Marianna
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Alunni-Fabbroni
authors.forename: Maria Teresa
authors.initials: MT
authors.lastname: Sandri
mesh_terms: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins / Q000032:analysis; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000473:pathology; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods*; D002499:Centrifugation, Density Gradient / Q000379:methods; D055028:Comparative Genomic Hybridization; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007633:Keratins / Q000032:analysis; D017493:Leukocyte Common Antigens / Q000032:analysis; D008207:Lymphatic Metastasis; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000737:chemistry / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D051017:Apoptosis Regulatory Proteins; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; C091572:DAP protein, human; D007633:Keratins; D017493:Leukocyte Common Antigens; C516769:PTPRC protein, human