What's new on circulating tumor cells? A meeting report.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) provide unique information for the management of cancer patients. The 7th International Symposium on Minimal Residual Cancer has focused on state of the art research, including exciting advances in understanding the biology of metastasis, CTCs and tumor dormancy. Particular emphasis was placed on the relationship of CTCs to cancer stem cells (CSCs) and the relevance of most recent findings for the development of new targeted therapies. CTCs were evaluated as promising tumor biomarkers and the design and results of the first clinical trials to determine their clinical utility were discussed together with state of the art technology platforms for CTC imaging, detection, quantification and molecular characterization. A liquid biopsy approach that can be used for prognostic and predictive purposes was proposed for the analysis of CTCs.
Lianidou
Evi S
ES
Department of Chemistry, University of Athens, 15771 Athens, Greece. lianidou@chem.uoa.gr
Mavroudis
Dimitris
D
Sotiropoulou
Georgia
G
Agelaki
Sophia
S
Pantel
Klaus
K
D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D018365:Neoplasm, Residual / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000628:therapy; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000628:therapy; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*; D014411:Neoplastic Stem Cells / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis