Circulating tumor cells in breast cancer

Abstract

Breast cancer is a heterogeneous disease. Liquid biopsy is a novel diagnostic tool and may provide answers to many questions related to unevenness in prognosis and ultimate outcome. Different technologies for CTC isolation, enrichment, detection, and characterization are under evaluation. Various clinical trials and meta-analysis have been conducted to define the role of CTC in early and metastatic breast cancer. CTCs are superior to other serum markers for prognostication. Their role as predictive marker remains elusive.

Oncology Gold Standard™ consensus statement on counseling patients for molecular testing and personalized cancer care

“…At present, available molecular technology helps us understand this in a manner that has the capacity to help improve patient care. [1,[10][11][12]20] The knowledge existing in and about human body is stored in DNA. This is the human genome code.…”

“…Furthermore, the current information explosion and ongoing development of several hundreds of targeted drugs have the potential of making this useful in more and more patients in the future. [11,12] B. Molecular testing can involve:…”

“…It is important to note that liquid biopsy cannot replace normal fine needle aspiration cytology/core/ incisional/excisional biopsy that is currently done for the diagnosis of cancer. [11] D. Immuno-oncology has emerged as the most important advance of recent years, not only in the field of cancer but also in several other diseases. [13] Better understanding of the interaction between tumor cells and our body's normal immune cells is responsible for this.…”

“…This is due to better techniques of diagnosis, availability of better health-care facilities, higher number of qualified oncologists as well as the use of modern drugs to treat patients. [1,[10][11][12][13] Molecular genetics and its application for ascertaining the risk of cancer, its early detection, its accurate diagnosis, in selecting the right treatment and dose as well as helping assess the status at follow-up or recurrence are very important additional tools in the fight against cancer. [10][11][12][13][14]…”

Visual Quantitative Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells with Single‐Cell Sensitivity Using a Portable Microfluidic Device

“…CTC enrichment is the isolation of CTCs from the vast background of normal blood cells using size, density, charge, deformability, or biological properties . Most of the current CTC detection approaches involve immunocytological assays (immunocytochemistry, flow cytometry, CellSearch system, DEPArray), molecular identification (real‐time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT‐qPCR), enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), and comparative genomic hybridization (CGH)), or functional characterization (in vitro cell culture, invasion assay, xenotransplantation models) . Unfortunately, most of them rely on high‐tech instrumentation and highly skilled personnel.…”