title: Circulating Tumor Cells, DNA, and mRNA: Potential for Clinical Utility in Patients With Melanoma.
abstract: : Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA), and messenger RNA (mRNA), collectively termed circulating tumor products (CTPs), represent areas of immense interest from scientists' and clinicians' perspectives. In melanoma, CTP analysis may have clinical utility in many areas, from screening and diagnosis to clinical decision-making aids, as surveillance biomarkers or sources of real-time genetic or molecular characterization. In addition, CTP analysis can be useful in the discovery of new biomarkers, patterns of treatment resistance, and mechanisms of metastasis development. Here, we compare and contrast CTCs, ctDNA, and mRNA, review the extent of translational evidence to date, and discuss how future studies involving both scientists and clinicians can help to further develop this tool for the benefit of melanoma patients.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Scientific advancement has enabled the rapid development of tools to analyze circulating tumor cells, tumor DNA, and messenger RNA, collectively termed circulating tumor products (CTPs). A variety of techniques have emerged to detect and characterize melanoma CTPs; however, only a fraction has been applied to human subjects. This review summarizes the available human data that investigate clinical utility of CTP in cancer screening, melanoma diagnosis, prognosis, prediction, and genetic or molecular characterization. It provides a rationale for how CTPs may be useful for future research and discusses how clinicians can be involved in developing this exciting new technology.
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Melody J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Jay F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Dorsey
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Ravi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Amaravadi
authors.affiliation: Division of Surgical Oncology, Department of Surgery, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Giorgos
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Karakousis
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Charles B
authors.initials: CB
authors.lastname: Simone
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Xiaowei
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Abramson Cancer Center, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Erica L
authors.initials: EL
authors.lastname: Carpenter
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology and Oncology, Department of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA.
authors.forename: Lynn
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schuchter
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Gary.Kao@uphs.upenn.edu.
authors.forename: Gary D
authors.initials: GD
authors.lastname: Kao
mesh_terms: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000097:blood*; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm / Q000097:blood*; D006801:Humans; D008545:Melanoma / Q000097:blood* / Q000235:genetics / Q000473:pathology; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology; D011379:Prognosis; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor; D004273:DNA, Neoplasm; D012333:RNA, Messenger
keywords: Circulating mRNA; Circulating tumor DNA; Circulating tumor cells; Clinical utility; Melanoma