IMR Press / FBL / Volume 25 / Issue 4 / DOI: 10.2741/4824

Frontiers in Bioscience-Landmark (FBL) is published by IMR Press from Volume 26 Issue 5 (2021). Previous articles were published by another publisher on a subscription basis, and they are hosted by IMR Press on imrpress.com as a courtesy and upon agreement with Frontiers in Bioscience.

Review
Circulating tumor cells as an emerging tool in cancer therapy
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1 Institute of Bioinformatics, International Technology Park, Bangalore, 560066 India
2 Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Manipal 576104, Karnataka, India
Send correspondence to: Prashant Kumar, Institute of Bioinformatics, Discoverer Building, International Tech Park, Whitefield, Bengaluru - 560 066, Tel: 91-80-28416140, Fax: 91-80-28416132, E-mail: prashant@ibioinformatics.org
Front. Biosci. (Landmark Ed) 2020, 25(4), 606–631; https://doi.org/10.2741/4824
Published: 1 January 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Elucidation of exosomes role in metastasis)
Abstract

Majority of the cancer-related deaths are related to metastasis during which cancer cells invade the surrounding tissues, enter (intravasation) and exit (extravasation) the peripheral circulation and seed distant organs. The Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) exist in peripheral blood as single cells or as oligoclonal clusters of tumor cells along with platelets and lymphocytes. Detection of CTCs allows characterizing the tumors by their genotype and in predicting the prognosis and response to therapy and explants derived from these cells can be used in drug screening. In this review, we highlight the methods used for isolation and culture of CTCs and their clinical use.

Keywords
Circulating tumor cells
CTC
CTC clusters
CTC culture
CTC derived explants
Review
Figures
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