Current Clinical Applications and Challenges of Circulating Tumor Cells

Abstract

Analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTC) has received enormous attentions for its potential to obtain diverse information of tumors dynamically. Nowadays fast-developing detection technologies facilitate its biological research of tumor dissemination and clinical implications. This review is going to discuss clinical applications of CTC including prognosis and prediction of metastatic progression, surveillance of therapeutic response and identification of therapeutic targets and resistance mechanisms and to further introduce present detection technologies of CTC.