Evaluating the Potential for Circulating Tumor Cells as a Diagnostic and Prognostic Biomarker in Various Cancer Types

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Author Info

Crista E. Horton Humza Razaq

Corresponding Author

Crista E. Horton
College of Medicine, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA

A B S T R A C T

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cells that can be found circulating in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. They originate from primary solid tumors and are thought to contribute to metastases and poor prognosis. Since cancer treatment is shifting toward greater personalization, a major goal in the field is the development of less invasive and more cost-effective measures in diagnosis, staging, treatment, prognostic implications, and surveillance of cancer. Utilizing CTCs as a biomarker from a “liquid biopsy” or sample of patients’ blood would be transformative in accomplishing this goal. In this review, we aim to critically assess current pre-clinical and clinical literature over the past two decades implicating CTCs’ potential for use as a predictive biomarker in various cancer types either in addition to or instead of current standards of care. We also are interested in understanding several aspects of CTCs including the role CTCs play in resistance to treatment, the immune system evasion properties of CTCs, the feasibility of using CTCs in clinical practice, and the utility of CTCs for predicting outcomes including patient survival. Furthermore, here we discuss gaps in the literature, limitations of CTCs, potential for their other uses, as well as the significance of CTC detection in patients following surgery.

Article Info

Article Type

Review Article

Publication history

Received: Sat 09, May 2020
Accepted: Mon 01, Jun 2020
Published: Fri 19, Jun 2020

Copyright

© 2023 Crista E. Horton. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Hosting by Science Repository.
DOI: 10.31487/j.COCB.2020.01.05