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PMID: 21300848 Published · ppublish English Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Review

Circulating tumor cells: approaches to isolation and characterization.

The Journal of cell biology ·Vol. 192 ·No. 3 ·2011-02-07 ·Pages 373-82

Yu M, Stott S, Toner M, Maheswaran S, Haber DA

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) shed from primary and metastatic cancers are admixed with blood components and are thus rare, making their isolation and characterization a major technological challenge. CTCs hold the key to understanding the biology of metastasis and provide a biomarker to noninvasively measure the evolution of tumor genotypes during treatment and disease progression. Improvements in technologies to yield purer CTC populations amenable to better cellular and molecular characterization will enable a broad range of clinical applications, including early detection of disease and the discovery of biomarkers to predict treatment responses and disease progression.

MeSH Terms
Animals Antigens, Surface/metabolism Biomarkers/analysis Cell Separation/methods Disease Progression Humans Neoplasms/metabolism Neoplastic Cells, Circulating/pathology
Chemicals
Antigens, Surface Biomarkers
Authors & Affiliations
5 authors, click to expand affiliations / ORCID
Yu Min
Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA.
Stott Shannon
Toner Mehmet
Maheswaran Shyamala
Haber Daniel A
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Article Info
Journal
The Journal of cell biology
Abbr.
J Cell Biol
ISSN
1540-8140
DOI
10.1083/jcb.201010021
Published
2011-02-07
Pages
373-82
Language
English
Region
United States
NLM ID
0375356
PMCID
PMC3101098
Subset
IM
Grants
NIBIB NIH HHS · P41 EB002503 · United States
Howard Hughes Medical Institute · United States
External Links
PubMed source DOI: 10.1083/jcb.201010021 PMC Full Text View journal details
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