Update on Circulating Tumor Cells in Genitourinary Tumors with Focus on Prostate Cancer

Abstract

Current developments in the treatment of genitourinary tumors underline the unmet clinical need for biomarkers to improve decision-making in a challenging clinical setting. The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has become one of the most exciting and important new approaches to identifying biomarkers at different stages of disease in a non-invasive way. Potential applications of CTCs include monitoring treatment efficacy and early detection of progression, selecting tailored therapies, as well as saving treatment costs. However, despite the promising implementation of CTCs in a clinical scenario, the isolation and characterization of these cells for molecular studies remain expensive with contemporary platforms, and significant technical challenges still need to be overcome. This updated, critical review focuses on the state of CTCs in patients with genitourinary tumor with focus on prostate cancer, discussing technical issues, main clinical results and hypothesizing potential future perspectives in clinical scenarios.

Circulating Tumor DNA Testing for Homology Recombination Repair Genes in Prostate Cancer: From the Lab to the Clinic

“…Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) in blood acquired from plasma using a simple blood test provides repeated serial access to tumor DNA as a minimally invasive “liquid biopsy.” Liquid biopsy includes cell-free nucleic acid, circulating tumor cells, extracellular vesicles, metabolites, and proteins [ 20 , 21 , 22 ].…”

Enhancing Prediction Performance by Add-On Combining Circulating Tumor Cell Count, CD45neg EpCAMneg Cell Count on Colorectal Cancer, Advance, and Metastasis

“…Based on these scientific findings, a wide variety of clinical studies were carried out. Reports in the literature, for example, have demonstrated that cancer patients with a higher number of CTCs normally have a poorer prognosis than those with a lower number of CTCs [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, the predictive roles of CTCs for specific cancer therapies have also been demonstrated in different scenarios in patients with breast [ 11 ], head and neck [ 12 ], or prostate cancers [ 9 ].…”

“…Reports in the literature, for example, have demonstrated that cancer patients with a higher number of CTCs normally have a poorer prognosis than those with a lower number of CTCs [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Moreover, the predictive roles of CTCs for specific cancer therapies have also been demonstrated in different scenarios in patients with breast [ 11 ], head and neck [ 12 ], or prostate cancers [ 9 ]. The prognostic role of CTCs has also been proven for patients with CRC after or during anticancer therapy [ 13 , 14 , 15 ].…”

“…Although the conventional CTC enumeration (e.g., CellSearch) approach and relevant assays have been successfully demonstrated for various clinical applications in oncology [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 ], there is an important biological issue that should be considered. As discussed earlier, most of the current CTC isolation or enumeration approaches primarily utilize the cellular surface antigen EpCAM for the identification of CTCs.…”

Update on Prostate Cancer Diagnosis, Prognosis, and Prediction to Response to Therapy

“…The wide range of novelties reported in this Special Issue of the journal Cells on prostate cancer (PCa) diagnosis, prognosis, and prediction to response to therapy, has led us to a series of considerations related to a better understanding of the current and future role of effective molecular biomarkers in individual patients with PCa [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]: (1) Digital pathology, including multiplexing; (2) Clinical translation of genetic information; (3) Clinical significance of liquid biopsies; and (4) Multi-criteria decision making and information fusion.…”