Circulating cancer cells

Article By:

Ignatiadis, Michail Department of Medical Oncology and Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, Jules Bordet Institute, Brussels, Belgium.

Last reviewed:2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1036/1097-8542.YB120222

The first report of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) dates back to 1869, when Thomas Ashworth, an Australian physician, described a case of cancer in which cells similar to those in the tumors were seen in the blood after death of the patient. It is well known that most deaths from carcinomas are caused by the hematogenous dissemination (that is, dissemination via the blood) of cancer cells to distant organs and eventually the development of metastasis. When found in the bone marrow of carcinoma patients, occult epithelial cells are defined as disseminated tumor cells (DTCs); when found in the peripheral blood, they are defined as CTCs. Several investigators have provided cytogenetic evidence indicating that most detectable epithelial cells in the bone marrow or peripheral blood of patients with carcinoma are malignant. Minimal residual disease (MRD) or micrometastatic cells are defined as tumor cells that are undetectable by conventional imaging and laboratory tests used for tumor staging after curative surgery of the primary tumor. MRD is thought to be the target of adjuvant systemic treatment, that is, treatment given to patients with solid tumors (for example, women with breast cancer) to reduce their risk of relapse after primary surgery.

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