Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2011 Jan 3:2011:621090.
doi: 10.4061/2011/621090.

Circulating tumor cells in breast cancer patients: an evolving role in patient prognosis and disease progression

Holly Graves  1 , Brian J Czerniecki
Affiliations

Circulating tumor cells in breast cancer patients: an evolving role in patient prognosis and disease progression

Holly Graves et al. Patholog Res Int. .

Abstract

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.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. Allard WJ, Matera J, Miller MC, et al. Tumor cells circulate in the peripheral blood of all major carcinomas but not in healthy subjects or patients with nonmalignant diseases. Clinical Cancer Research. 2004;10(20):6897–6904. - PubMed
    1. Braun S, Pantel K, Müller P, et al. Cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow and survival of patients with stage I, II, or III breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2000;342(8):525–533. - PubMed
    1. Braun S, Vogl FD, Naume B, et al. A pooled analysis of bone marrow micrometastasis in breast cancer. New England Journal of Medicine. 2005;353(8):793–802. - PubMed
    1. Janni W, Rack B, Schindlbeck C, et al. The persistence of isolated tumor cells in bone marrow from patients with breast carcinoma predicts an increased risk for recurrence. Cancer. 2005;103(5):884–891. - PubMed
    1. Wiedswang G, Borgen E, Kåresen R, et al. Isolated tumor cells in bone marrow three years after diagnosis in disease-free breast cancer patients predict unfavorable clinical outcome. Clinical Cancer Research. 2004;10(16):5342–5348. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources