title: Clinical Applications of Circulating Tumor Cells in Pharmacotherapy: Challenges and Perspectives.
abstract: Screening for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been identified as one approach to ultrasensitive liquid biopsy in real-time monitoring of cancer patients. The detection of CTCs in peripheral blood from cancer patients is promising as a diagnostic tool; however, the application of CTCs in therapeutic treatment still faces serious challenges with respect to specificity and sensitivity. Here, we review the significant roles of CTCs in metastasis and the strengths and weaknesses of the currently available methods for CTC detection and characterization. Moreover, we discuss the clinical application of CTCs as markers for patient prognosis, and we specifically focus on the application of CTCs as indicators in cancer pharmacotherapy. Characterization of the detected CTCs will provide new biologic perspectives and clinical applications for the treatment of cancer patients with metastasis.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Institute (T.W., L.F.); and Department of Oral Medicine, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China (T.W., B.C.).
authors.forename: Tong
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Institute (T.W., L.F.); and Department of Oral Medicine, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China (T.W., B.C.).
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Oncology in South China, Collaborative Innovation Center for Cancer Medicine, Guangdong Esophageal Cancer Institute (T.W., L.F.); and Department of Oral Medicine, Guanghua School of Stomatology, Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Stomatology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China (T.W., B.C.) fulw@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Liwu
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fu
mesh_terms: D015415:Biomarkers; D019008:Drug Resistance, Neoplasm; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000187:drug effects*; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D015415:Biomarkers