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
. 2021 Nov 5:13:8355-8365.
doi: 10.2147/CMAR.S337489. eCollection 2021.

Circulating Tumor Cells in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma - Mini Review

Yujing Shi  1 , Xiaolin Ge  2 , Mengyang Ju  3 , Yumeng Zhang  4 , Xiaoke Di  2 , Liang Liang  1
Affiliations
Review

Circulating Tumor Cells in Esophageal Squamous Cell Carcinoma - Mini Review

Yujing Shi et al. Cancer Manag Res. .

Abstract

Esophageal cancer has high incidence and mortality rates and a low five-year survival rate of <15% owing to its strong capabilities of invasion, relapse and metastasis. The classic view holds that metastasis and diffusion is an advanced event during cancer progression, but recent studies show that distant diffusion of primary cancer cells may actually be an early event. Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the circulation may indicate tumor spread, so CTCs are considered to be the key factor of metastatic cascade. In recent years, despite research progress on CTCs, there is a lack of systematic and important evidence to confirm the diagnostic, monitoring and prognostic values of CTCs in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC). In this review, we clarify the relationship between CTC values and ESCC and provide more reliable evidence to improve the management and treatment of ESCC.

Keywords: circulating tumor cells; diagnostic; esophageal squamous cell carcinoma; prognostic.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.

Figures

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

References

    1. Bray F, Ferlay J, Soerjomataram I, Siegel RL, Torre LA, Jemal A. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2018;68:394–424. doi:10.3322/caac.21492 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Sclafani F, Smyth E, Cunningham D, et al. Assessing the incidence and clinical significance of circulating tumor cells in esophagogastric cancers. Clin Colorectal Cancer. 2014;13(2):94–99. doi:10.1016/j.clcc.2013.11.003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Li H, Song P, Zou B, et al. Circulating tumor cell analyses in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma using epithelial marker-dependent and -independent approaches. Medicine (Baltimore). 2015;94(38):e1565. doi:10.1097/MD.0000000000001565 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kato H, Kuwano H, Nakajima M, et al. Usefulness of positron emission tomography for assessing the response of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy in patients with esophageal cancer. Am J Surg. 2002;184(3):279–283. doi:10.1016/S0002-9610(02)00932-7 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ikoma D, Ichikawa D, Ueda Y, et al. Circulating tumor cells and aberrant methylation as tumor markers in patients with esophageal cancer. Anticancer Res. 2007;27(1B):535–539. - PubMed