title: Detection of the circulating tumor cells in cancer patients.
abstract: As the presence of tumor cells circulating in the blood is associated with systemic disease and shortened survival, the establishment of a method to detect circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is of critical importance for a more concise staging and follow-up of cancer patients. Recently, the most robust strategies for the determination of CTCs are the PCR-based methods and the CellSearch® system that exploits the immunofluorescent characterization and isolation of cancer cells. Herein, we analyzed the experimental strategies used for determining CTCs with respect to accuracy, sensitivity and reproducibility in cancers of the breast, colon, prostate and melanoma.
authors.affiliation: Department of Experimental Physiology, Medical School, National & Kapodistrian University of Athens, 75 Micras Asias, Goudi-Athens, Greece.
authors.forename: Athanasios
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Armakolas
authors.forename: Zacharoula
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Panteleakou
authors.forename: Adrianos
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nezos
authors.forename: Aikaterini
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tsouma
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Skondra
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Lembessis
authors.forename: Nikolaos
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pissimissis
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koutsilieris
mesh_terms: D001772:Blood Cell Count; D001773:Blood Cells / Q000473:pathology; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000097:blood* / Q000473:pathology; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods