Role of circulating tumor cells in future diagnosis and therapy of cancer

open access - J Cancer Metastasis Treatment

 Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have become a blistering topic of discussion for oncologists because of their tremendous potential in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. Over the past few years, they have been doled with quite an amount of research in this area understanding that CTCs are shed from tumors and circulate in the bloodstream. This process can also occur at an early stage of cancer. The major limitation in isolation of CTCs is their availability in limited numbers. Hence, many techniques have been developed and are under continuous improvement to enhance their efficacy of CTC isolation and enumeration. They have shown their potentiality to not just indicate the presence of a tumor but also to provide us with its core information......

.... A study by Kuhlmann et al.^[120] brings to light an importance of the molecular characterization of CTCs in ovarian cancer. They have shown that ERCC1+ CTCs can predict platinum resistance therapy in ovarian cancer which is still remains a big challenge in the treatment of ovarian malignancy. ^[120] Obermayer et al.^[121] have shown that there are more number of cyclophilin C gene (PPIC) positive CTCs are detected usually in ovarian platinum-resistant cancer group as compared to the sensitive group than EpCAM positive CTCs in these patients....