Home LiteratureArticle Details
PMID: 19712001 Published · ppublish English Journal Article

Circulating tumor cells as markers for cancer risk assessment and treatment monitoring.

Molecular diagnosis & therapy ·Vol. 13 ·No. 4 ·2009-00-00 ·Pages 209-15

Kasimir-Bauer S

Abstract

Carcinomas of epithelial origin represent the majority of malignancies in Europe. A substantial number of patients develop recurrent carcinoma, which is explained by tumor-cell dissemination into distant organs, preferentially bone marrow, which often occurs prior to surgery. In contrast to disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow, for which the prognostic value has been demonstrated, the role of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood is not yet completely understood. Since bone marrow aspiration is less accepted by patients than blood withdrawal, it would be highly desirable to replace bone marrow aspiration by blood analysis. Presently, a variety of seemingly promising methods for the detection and characterization of CTCs are under evaluation, including immunocytologic and molecular approaches. However, these methods still need to be proven useful in clinical studies. The majority of studies published on CTCs to date have been related to primary and metastatic breast cancer; therefore, this article mainly addresses the role of CTCs in breast cancer.

MeSH Terms
Animals Biomarkers, Tumor/analysis,blood Bone Marrow/pathology Breast Neoplasms/blood,diagnosis,pathology Female Hematologic Tests/methods Humans Neoplasm Metastasis/diagnosis,pathology Neoplastic Cells, Circulating/pathology
Chemicals
Biomarkers, Tumor
Authors & Affiliations
1 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Kasimir-Bauer Sabine
Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, University Hospital Essen, University of Duisburg-Essen, Essen, Germany. sabine.kasimir-bauer@uk-essen.de
References (59)
59 references, click to expand
  1. Comparison of the clinical significance of occult tumor cells in blood and bone marrow in breast cancer.
    Int J Cancer. 2006 Apr 15;118(8):2013-9 PMID: 16287086
  2. Epithelial-mesenchymal transitions: twist in development and metastasis.
    Cell. 2004 Aug 6;118(3):277-9 PMID: 15294153
  3. ERalpha-status of disseminated tumour cells in bone marrow of primary breast cancer patients.
    Breast Cancer Res. 2008;10(5):R76 PMID: 18793387
  4. Cancer stem cells in solid tumours: accumulating evidence and unresolved questions.
    Nat Rev Cancer. 2008 Oct;8(10):755-68 PMID: 18784658
  5. Clinical significance of immunocytochemical detection of tumor cells using digital microscopy in peripheral blood and bone marrow of breast cancer patients.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Feb 15;10(4):1392-400 PMID: 14977842
  6. Epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) status in primary colorectal tumors correlates with EGFR expression in related metastatic sites: biological and clinical implications.
    Ann Oncol. 2005 Sep;16(9):1503-7 PMID: 15980160
  7. Prevalence of CD44+/CD24-/low cells in breast cancer may not be associated with clinical outcome but may favor distant metastasis.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2005 Feb 1;11(3):1154-9 PMID: 15709183
  8. Circulating tumor cells, disease progression, and survival in metastatic breast cancer.
    N Engl J Med. 2004 Aug 19;351(8):781-91 PMID: 15317891
  9. Molecular profiling and predictive value of circulating tumor cells in patients with metastatic breast cancer: an option for monitoring response to breast cancer related therapies.
    Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2009 Jun;115(3):581-90 PMID: 18679793
  10. Detection of cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow of breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant therapy.
    Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2006 May;97(1):91-6 PMID: 16319975
  11. Circulating tumor cell analysis in patients with progressive castration-resistant prostate cancer.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2007 Apr 1;13(7):2023-9 PMID: 17404082
  12. Monitoring expression of HER-2 on circulating epithelial cells in patients with advanced breast cancer.
    Int J Oncol. 2002 Nov;21(5):1111-7 PMID: 12370762
  13. Persistent evidence of circulating tumor cells detected by means of RT-PCR for CEA mRNA predicts early relapse: a prospective study in node-negative breast cancer.
    Surgery. 2004 Apr;135(4):419-26 PMID: 15041966
  14. ErbB2 overexpression on occult metastatic cells in bone marrow predicts poor clinical outcome of stage I-III breast cancer patients.
    Cancer Res. 2001 Mar 1;61(5):1890-5 PMID: 11280743
  15. Circulating tumor cells in metastatic breast cancer: biologic staging beyond tumor burden.
    Clin Breast Cancer. 2007 Feb;7(6):471-9 PMID: 17386124
  16. Detection of circulating breast tumor cells by differential expression of marker genes.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2002 Jun;8(6):1871-7 PMID: 12060630
  17. Detection of breast cancer cells in the peripheral blood is positively correlated with estrogen-receptor status and predicts for poor prognosis.
    Int J Cancer. 2003 Dec 20;107(6):984-90 PMID: 14601059
  18. Isolation of rare circulating tumour cells in cancer patients by microchip technology.
    Nature. 2007 Dec 20;450(7173):1235-9 PMID: 18097410
  19. A European interlaboratory testing of three well-known procedures for immunocytochemical detection of epithelial cells in bone marrow. Results from analysis of normal bone marrow.
    Cytometry B Clin Cytom. 2006 Nov 15;70(6):400-9 PMID: 16924637
  20. Real-time RT-PCR detection of disseminated tumour cells in bone marrow has superior prognostic significance in comparison with circulating tumour cells in patients with breast cancer.
    Br J Cancer. 2006 Mar 13;94(5):672-80 PMID: 16495933
  21. 2000 update of recommendations for the use of tumor markers in breast and colorectal cancer: clinical practice guidelines of the American Society of Clinical Oncology.
    J Clin Oncol. 2001 Mar 15;19(6):1865-78 PMID: 11251019
  22. Detection of circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with metastatic breast cancer: a validation study of the CellSearch system.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2007 Feb 1;13(3):920-8 PMID: 17289886
  23. Differential expression of proliferation-associated molecules in individual micrometastatic carcinoma cells.
    J Natl Cancer Inst. 1993 Sep 1;85(17):1419-24 PMID: 7688814
  24. Combination of immunomagnetic enrichment with multiplex RT-PCR analysis for the detection of disseminated tumor cells.
    Anticancer Res. 2005 May-Jun;25(3A):1803-10 PMID: 16033103
  25. Assessment of highly angiogenic and disseminated in the peripheral blood disease in breast cancer patients predicts for resistance to adjuvant chemotherapy and early relapse.
    Int J Cancer. 2004 Feb 10;108(4):620-7 PMID: 14696130
  26. Circulating tumor cells in patients with breast cancer dormancy.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Dec 15;10(24):8152-62 PMID: 15623589
  27. A concept for the standardized detection of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow from patients with primary breast cancer and its clinical implementation.
    Cancer. 2006 Sep 1;107(5):885-92 PMID: 16874814
  28. Molecular detection of breast cancer cells in the peripheral blood of advanced-stage breast cancer patients using multimarker real-time reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and a novel porous barrier density gradient centrifugation technology.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2003 Oct 15;9(13):4865-71 PMID: 14581359
  29. A pooled analysis of bone marrow micrometastasis in breast cancer.
    N Engl J Med. 2005 Aug 25;353(8):793-802 PMID: 16120859
  30. Determination of HER2 status using both serum HER2 levels and circulating tumor cells in patients with recurrent breast cancer whose primary tumor was HER2 negative or of unknown HER2 status.
    Breast Cancer Res. 2007;9(5):R74 PMID: 17963511
  31. Circulating breast cancer cells are frequently apoptotic.
    Am J Pathol. 2001 Jul;159(1):17-20 PMID: 11438448
  32. Circulating tumor cells at each follow-up time point during therapy of metastatic breast cancer patients predict progression-free and overall survival.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2006 Jul 15;12(14 Pt 1):4218-24 PMID: 16857794
  33. Molecular detection of cytokeratin-19-positive cells in the peripheral blood of patients with operable breast cancer: evaluation of their prognostic significance.
    J Clin Oncol. 2002 Aug 15;20(16):3404-12 PMID: 12177100
  34. Frequent down-regulation of major histocompatibility class I antigen expression on individual micrometastatic carcinoma cells.
    Cancer Res. 1991 Sep 1;51(17):4712-5 PMID: 1873815
  35. Isolation and molecular profiling of bone marrow micrometastases identifies TWIST1 as a marker of early tumor relapse in breast cancer patients.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2007 Sep 1;13(17):5001-9 PMID: 17785550
  36. High speed detection of circulating tumor cells.
    Biosens Bioelectron. 2006 Apr 15;21(10):1893-9 PMID: 16464570
  37. Systemic spread is an early step in breast cancer.
    Cancer Cell. 2008 Jan;13(1):58-68 PMID: 18167340
  38. Disseminated tumor cells of breast cancer patients: a strong prognostic factor for distant and local relapse.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2008 Jun 1;14(11):3306-11 PMID: 18519757
  39. Detection and characterization of putative metastatic precursor cells in cancer patients.
    Clin Chem. 2007 Mar;53(3):537-9 PMID: 17327507
  40. ALDH1 is a marker of normal and malignant human mammary stem cells and a predictor of poor clinical outcome.
    Cell Stem Cell. 2007 Nov;1(5):555-67 PMID: 18371393
  41. Isolated tumor cells in bone marrow three years after diagnosis in disease-free breast cancer patients predict unfavorable clinical outcome.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Aug 15;10(16):5342-8 PMID: 15328170
  42. Monitoring the response of circulating epithelial tumor cells to adjuvant chemotherapy in breast cancer allows detection of patients at risk of early relapse.
    J Clin Oncol. 2008 Mar 10;26(8):1208-15 PMID: 18323545
  43. Anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibodies and the detection of circulating normal-like breast tumor cells.
    J Natl Cancer Inst. 2009 Jan 7;101(1):61-6 PMID: 19116383
  44. Epithelial-mesenchymal transitions in tumour progression.
    Nat Rev Cancer. 2002 Jun;2(6):442-54 PMID: 12189386
  45. Most early disseminated cancer cells detected in bone marrow of breast cancer patients have a putative breast cancer stem cell phenotype.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2006 Oct 1;12(19):5615-21 PMID: 17020963
  46. Circulating tumor cell detection predicts early metastatic relapse after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in large operable and locally advanced breast cancer in a phase II randomized trial.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2008 Nov 1;14(21):7004-10 PMID: 18980996
  47. Stem cell and epithelial-mesenchymal transition markers are frequently overexpressed in circulating tumor cells of metastatic breast cancer patients.
    Breast Cancer Res. 2009;11(4):R46 PMID: 19589136
  48. Estrogen receptor expression profile of disseminated epithelial tumor cells in bone marrow of breast cancer patients.
    Recent Results Cancer Res. 2003;162:141-7 PMID: 12790328
  49. Her2 expression on disseminated tumor cells from bone marrow of breast cancer patients.
    Anticancer Res. 2005 May-Jun;25(3B):2171-5 PMID: 16158960
  50. Comparison of HER2 status between primary tumor and disseminated tumor cells in primary breast cancer patients.
    Breast Cancer Res Treat. 2006 Jul;98(2):179-84 PMID: 16552629
  51. Survival of tumor cells in stem cell preparations and bone marrow of patients with high-risk or metastatic breast cancer after receiving dose-intensive or high-dose chemotherapy.
    Clin Cancer Res. 2001 Jun;7(6):1582-9 PMID: 11410494
  52. The clinical significance of circulating tumour cells in breast cancer and colorectal cancer patients.
    Anticancer Res. 2007 May-Jun;27(3A):1337-41 PMID: 17593628
  53. The relevance of circulating epithelial tumor cells (CETC) for therapy monitoring during neoadjuvant (primary systemic) chemotherapy in breast cancer.
    Ann Oncol. 2007 Sep;18(9):1484-92 PMID: 17761704
  54. Detection of circulating epithelial cells in the blood of patients with breast cancer: comparison of three techniques.
    Br J Cancer. 2005 Mar 14;92(5):906-12 PMID: 15714202
  55. A rare-cell detector for cancer.
    Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2004 Jul 20;101(29):10501-4 PMID: 15249663
  56. Lack of effect of adjuvant chemotherapy on the elimination of single dormant tumor cells in bone marrow of high-risk breast cancer patients.
    J Clin Oncol. 2000 Jan;18(1):80-6 PMID: 10623696
  57. Detection of tumour cells in the peripheral blood of patients with breast cancer. Development of a new sensitive and specific immunomolecular assay.
    J Exp Clin Cancer Res. 2004 Sep;23(3):465-8 PMID: 15595637
  58. Detection, clinical relevance and specific biological properties of disseminating tumour cells.
    Nat Rev Cancer. 2008 May;8(5):329-40 PMID: 18404148
  59. Quantification of the response of circulating epithelial cells to neodadjuvant treatment for breast cancer: a new tool for therapy monitoring.
    Breast Cancer Res. 2005;7(6):R975-9 PMID: 16280045
Article Info
Journal
Molecular diagnosis & therapy
Abbr.
Mol Diagn Ther
ISSN
1179-2000
DOI
10.1007/BF03256327
Email
sabine.kasimir-bauer@uk-essen.de
Published
2009-00-00
Pages
209-15
Language
English
Region
New Zealand
NLM ID
101264260
Subset
IM
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1007/BF03256327 View journal details
Analysis Services
Analysis Services

Contact

No. 2 Wenbo Road, Zhangqiu District, Jinan, Shandong

Qilu Normal University · Genelibs Bioinformatics Lab

750 Shunhua Rd, Jinan

2F, Bldg F, University Science Park

Tel: 0531-88819269

WeChat Official Account

Follow our WeChat subscription account for real-time updates and the latest in medical and biological research.


Business Email

E-mail: product@genelibs.com

Copyright © 2026.Genelibs Jinan Honghui Biotechnology Co., Ltd. 鲁ICP备20007159号-2