XIAOFENG LI¹, JINYANG ZHENG², JINFENG ZHU³, XIN HUANG⁴, HUANHUAN ZHU⁵, BINGDI CHEN^6,*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.8, pp. 1771-1781, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.028343

Abstract Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are neoplastic cells that are detached from primary tumors and enter circulation. Enumeration and characterization of CTCs are of significance in cancer diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment monitoring. CTC survival in the bloodstream is a limiting step for the development of metastases in distant organs. Recent technological advances, especially in single-cell molecular analyses have uncovered heterogeneous CTC survival mechanisms. Undergoing epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition (EMT), increasing stem cell-like properties, and forming cell clusters enable CTCs to adapt to the harsh microenvironment of the circulation. Expressing and releasing several immunosuppressive molecules help CTCs escape from anti-cancer immune mechanisms. This review… More >

EFFAT ALEMZADEH¹, LEILA ALLAHQOLI², HAMIDEH DEHGHAN³, AFROOZ MAZIDIMORADI⁴, ALIREZA GHASEMPOUR³, HAMID SALEHINIYA^5,*

Oncology Research, Vol.31, No.5, pp. 667-675, 2023, DOI:10.32604/or.2023.028406

Abstract Liquid biopsy, including both circulating tumor cells and circulating tumor DNA, is becoming more popular as a diagnostic tool in the clinical management of breast cancer. Elevated concentrations of these biomarkers during cancer treatment may be used as markers for cancer progression as well as to understand the mechanisms underlying metastasis and treatment resistance. Thus, these circulating markers serve as tools for cancer assessing and monitoring through a simple, non-invasive blood draw. However, despite several study results currently noting a potential clinical impact of ctDNA mutation tracking, the method is not used clinically in cancer diagnosis among patients and more… More > Graphic Abstract

JIAHAO ZHANG^1,2,3, JIE REN⁴, ZIRUI LI^1,2,3,*, YIXING GOU^1,2,3,*

BIOCELL, Vol.47, No.7, pp. 1439-1447, 2023, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2023.028628

Abstract Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are essential biomarkers for liquid biopsies, which are important in the early screening, prognosis, and real-time monitoring of cancer. However, CTCs are less abundant in the peripheral blood of patients, therefore, their isolation is necessary. Recently, the use of microfluidics for CTC sorting has become a research hotspot owing to its low cost, ease of integration, low sample consumption, and unique advantages in the manipulation of micron-sized particles. Herein, we review the latest research on microfluidics-based CTC sorting. Specifically, we consider active sorting using external fields (electric, magnetic, acoustic, and optical tweezers) and passive sorting using… More >

SANDRA STICKLER¹, BARBARA RATH¹, MAXIMILIAN HOCHMAIR², CLEMENS LANG³, LUKAS WEIGL⁴, GERHARD HAMILTON^1,*

Oncology Research, Vol.31, No.1, pp. 13-22, 2023, DOI:10.32604/or.2022.027281

Abstract Small cell lung cancer (SCLC) is frequently disseminated and has a dismal prognosis with survival times of approximately two years. This cancer responds well to initial chemotherapy but recurs within a short time as a globally chemoresistant tumor. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are held responsible for metastasis, the extremely high numbers of these cells in advanced SCLC allowed us to establish several permanent CTC cell lines. These CTCs are distinguished by the spontaneous formation of large spheroids, termed tumorospheres, in regular tissue culture. These contain quiescent and hypoxic cells in their interior and are associated with high chemoresistance compared to… More >

V. Allouchery, L. Augusto, F. Clatot

Oncologie, Vol.21, No.1, pp. 40-48, 2019, DOI:10.3166/onco-2019-0035

Abstract It has been known for a long time that circulating tumor cells (CTC) as well as circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) can be detected. However, only recent technical advances allowed evaluating the interest of CTC and ctDNA in breast cancer. In both early and metastatic breast cancers, CTC detection is a recognized factor for poor outcome. Nevertheless, CTC detection does not impact cancer management yet. The use of ctDNA in daily practice will require validation by prospective data. But ctDNA seems particularly promising both for residual disease evaluation and identification of tumor clones harbouring mutations (PI3KC, ESR1) and may predict efficacy… More >

Tiangen WU¹, Tianhao BAO^2,3, Daoming LIANG^1,*, Lin WANG^4,*

BIOCELL, Vol.43, No.4, pp. 293-298, 2019, DOI:10.32604/biocell.2019.07841

Abstract Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial to tumor metastasis, and they usually undergo epithelial– mesenchymal transition (EMT) in order to disseminate from the primary tumor. However, very little is currently known about the relationship between EMT and malignant phenotypes of CTCs in the context of gastric cancer. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the contribution of EMT to malignant phenotypes of CTCs derived from gastric cancer cells. We xenografted MKN28 gastric cancer cells pretreated with transforming growth factor-beta 1 (TGFβ-1) into nude mice by intravenous injection. Next, we isolated CTCs from the blood of nude mice by gradient centrifugation and… More >

Peng Jing¹, Xiaolong Wang¹, Shigeho Noda², Xiaobo Gong^1,*

Molecular & Cellular Biomechanics, Vol.16, Suppl.2, pp. 36-37, 2019, DOI:10.32604/mcb.2019.07111

Abstract The motion of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in microcirculatory system is one of the critical steps during cancer metastasis. The moving behavior and stress distribution of circulating tumor cells under different geometry and flow conditions are important basis for studying the adhesion between circulating tumor cells and vessel walls. In the present work, the motion and deformation of circulating tumor cells in capillary tubes are numerically studied using the immersed boundary method (IBM). The membrane stress distribution of CTCs in confined tubes are investigated with under vessel diameters, hematocrit (Ht) values and capillary numbers (Ca). The results show that the… More >