Circulating and disseminated tumor cells as a possible prognostic factor for oncological diseases

Background. Distant metastasis remains the main cause of death for patients, despite some successes in the diagnosis and treatment of solid tumors. This demonstrates the significance to study the methods for the timely detection of tumor micrometastases and to find the role of tumor cells preserved in peripheral blood or disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow after the end of the treatment. Aim. To generalize the data concerning the significance and methodology of the determining circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood and disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow in case of different types of cancer. Materials and methods. Foreign and domestic articles concerning this topic, published in eLibrary, PubMed, Medline, Scopus databases have been analyzed. Results. The literary review deals with the modern methods of determination, we have analyzed the importance of identification of circulating and disseminated tumor cells as the clinical predictors for specific nosological types of cancer. Conclusion. The enumeration of circulating and disseminated tumor cells could be a new generation of screening and evaluation of the efficacy of cancer therapy. However, it is necessary and up to date to develop the methodology of their quantitative and qualitative identification and to find the methods for evaluating functional activity.