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Review
. 2018 May 11;9(36):24561-24571.
doi: 10.18632/oncotarget.25337.

Circulating tumor cells in clinical research and monitoring patients with colorectal cancer

Claudia Burz  1   2 , Vlad-Vasile Pop  1 , Rares Buiga  2 , Sur Daniel  1   2 , Gabriel Samasca  1   3 , Cornel Aldea  3 , Iulia Lupan  4   5
Affiliations
Review

Circulating tumor cells in clinical research and monitoring patients with colorectal cancer

Claudia Burz et al. Oncotarget. .

Abstract

Colorectal cancer remains a frequent disease to which screening and target therapy exist, but despite this is still marked by a high mortality rate. Even though radical surgery may be performed in many cases, patients relapse with metastatic disease. Circulating tumor cells were incriminated for tumor recurrence, that's why vigorous research started on their field. Owning prognostic and predictive value, it was revealed their usefulness in disease monitoring. Moreover, they may serve as liquid biopsies for genetic tests in cases where tissue biopsy is contraindicated or cannot be performed. In spite of these advantages, they were not included in clinical guidelines, despite CellSearch and many other detection methods were developed to ease the identification of circulating tumor cells. This review highlights the implication of circulating tumor cells in metastasis cascade, intrinsic tumor cells mechanisms and correlations with clinical parameters along with their utility for medical practice and detection techniques.

Keywords: circulating tumor cells; colorectal cancer; metastasis; prognostic factor; survival.

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Conflict of interest statement

CONFLICTS OF INTEREST The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(A–B) CTCs are disseminated from primary tumor sites and a bridge for relapse or metastasis.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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