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
Review
. 2018 Aug 14:8:311.
doi: 10.3389/fonc.2018.00311. eCollection 2018.

The Prognostic Role of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in Lung Cancer

Joanna Kapeleris  1   2 , Arutha Kulasinghe  1   2 , Majid E Warkiani  3   4 , Ian Vela  5   6 , Liz Kenny  7 , Kenneth O'Byrne  1   2   8 , Chamindie Punyadeera  1   2
Affiliations
Review

The Prognostic Role of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in Lung Cancer

Joanna Kapeleris et al. Front Oncol. .

Abstract

Lung cancer affects over 1. 8 million people worldwide and is the leading cause of cancer related mortality globally. Currently, diagnosis of lung cancer involves a combination of imaging and invasive biopsies to confirm histopathology. Non-invasive diagnostic techniques under investigation include "liquid biopsies" through a simple blood draw to develop predictive and prognostic biomarkers. A better understanding of circulating tumor cell (CTC) dissemination mechanisms offers promising potential for the development of techniques to assist in the diagnosis of lung cancer. Enumeration and characterization of CTCs has the potential to act as a prognostic biomarker and to identify novel drug targets for a precision medicine approach to lung cancer care. This review will focus on the current status of CTCs and their potential diagnostic and prognostic utility in this setting.

Keywords: Circulating tumor cells; NSCLC; SCLC; liquid biopsy; lung cancer.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Culture of circulating tumor cells.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Siegel RL, Miller KD, Jemal A. Cancer statistics, 2017. CA Cancer J Clin. (2017) 67:7–30. 10.3322/caac.21387 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Wong MCS, Lao XQ, Ho K-F, Goggins WB, Tse SLA. Incidence and mortality of lung cancer: global trends and association with socioeconomic status. Sci Rep. (2017) 7:14300. 10.1038/s41598-017-14513-7 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Insitute NNC. Cancer Stat Facts: Lung and Bronchus Cancer [Online]. NIH- National Cancer Institute (2017). Available online at: https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/lungb.html (Accessed July 17, 2017).
    1. Ellis PM, Vandermeer R. Delays in the diagnosis of lung cancer. J Thorac Dis. (2011) 3:183–8. 10.3978/j.issn.2072-1439.2011.01.01 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Birring SS, Peake MD. Symptoms and the early diagnosis of lung cancer. Thorax (2005) 60:268–9. 10.1136/thx.2004.032698 - DOI - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources