scholarly journals Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer Patients: An Evolving Role in Patient Prognosis and Disease Progression

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Graves ◽  
Brian J. Czerniecki
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Circulating Tumor Cells ◽  
Early Breast Cancer ◽  
Primary Tumor ◽  
Metastatic Breast ◽  
Her2 Status ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Neoplastic Process

In this paper, we examine the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in breast cancer. CTCs are tumor cells present in the peripheral blood. They are found in many different carcinomas but are not present in patients with benign disease. Recent advances in theories regarding metastasis support the role of early release of tumor cells in the neoplastic process. Furthermore, it has been found that phenotypic variation exists between the primary tumor and CTCs. Of particular interest is the incongruency found between primary tumor and CTC HER2 status in both metastatic and early breast cancer. Overall, CTCs have been shown to be a poor prognostic marker in metastatic breast cancer. CTCs in early breast cancer are not as well studied, however, several studies suggest that the presence of CTCs in early breast cancer may also suggest a poorer prognosis. Studies are currently underway looking at the use of CTC level monitoring in order to guide changes in therapy.

scholarly journals Circulating Tumor Cells in Early Breast Cancer

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Thery ◽  
Alessandra Meddis ◽  
Luc Cabel ◽  
Charlotte Proudhon ◽  
Aurelien Latouche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Cancer Patients ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Circulating Tumor Cells ◽  
Early Breast Cancer ◽  
Metastatic Breast ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Level Of Evidence ◽  
Free Survival ◽  
Meta Analyses

AbstractCirculating tumor cells (CTCs) are particularly rare in non-metastatic breast cancer, and the clinical validity of CTC detection in that clinical setting was initially not well recognized. A cytological CTC detection device (CellSearch) fulfilling the CLIA requirements for analytical validity was subsequently developed and, in 2008, we reported the first study (REMAGUS02) showing that distant metastasis-free survival was shorter in early breast cancer patients with one or more CTCs. In the past 10 years, other clinical studies and meta-analyses have established CTC detection as a level-of-evidence 1 prognostic biomarker for local relapses, distant relapses, and overall survival. This review summarizes available data on CTC detection and the promises of this proliferation- and subtype-independent metastasis-associated biomarker in early breast cancer patients.

scholarly journals Technical Challenges for CTC Implementation in Breast Cancer

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (18) ◽  
pp. 4619
Author(s):  
Rocío Ramos-Medina ◽  
Sara López-Tarruella ◽  
María del Monte-Millán ◽  
Tatiana Massarrah ◽  
Miguel Martín
Keyword(s):  
Breast Cancer ◽  
Tumor Cells ◽  
Circulating Tumor Cells ◽  
Tumor Heterogeneity ◽  
Metastatic Breast ◽  
Circulating Tumor Cell ◽  
Circulating Tumor Dna ◽  
Breast Cancer Patients ◽  
Isolation And Characterization

Breast cancer is the most common neoplasm in women worldwide. Tissue biopsy, currently the gold standard to obtain tumor molecular information, is invasive and might be affected by tumor heterogeneity rendering it incapable to portray the complete dynamic picture by the absence of specific genetic changes during the evolution of the disease. In contrast, liquid biopsy can provide unique opportunities for real-time monitoring of disease progression, treatment response and for studying tumor heterogeneity combining the information of DNA that tumors spread in the blood (circulating tumor DNA) with CTCs analysis. In this review, we analyze the technical and biological challenges for isolation and characterization of circulating tumor cells from breast cancer patients. Circulating tumor cell (CTC) enumeration value is included in numerous clinical studies due to the prognostic’s role of these cells. Despite this, there are so many questions pending to answer. How to manage lymphocytes background, how to distinguish the CTCs subtypes or how to work with frozen samples, are some of the issues that will discuss in this review. Based on our experience, we try to address these issues and other technical limitations that should be solved to optimize the standardization of protocols, sample extraction procedures, circulating-tumor material isolation (CTCs vs. ctDNA) and the very diverse methodologies employed, aiming to consolidate the use of CTCs in the clinic. Furthermore, we think that new approaches focusing on isolation CTCs in other body fluids such as cerebrospinal or ascitic fluid are necessary to increase the opportunities of circulating tumor cells in the practice clinic as well as to study the promising role of CTC clusters and their prognostic value in metastatic breast cancer.

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