Clinical significance of circulating tumor cell (CTC)-specific microRNA (miRNA) in breast cancer

As a noninvasive method, circulating tumor cell (CTC) provides ideal liquid biopsy specimens for early cancer screening and diagnosis. CTCs detection in breast cancer is correlated with patient prognosis such as disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Besides, accumulating evidence supported that CTCs count may be indicator for chemotherapy response as well. The functional roles of microRNA (miRNA) in breast cancer have been well-recognized for the last few years. Due to its stability in circulation, numerous studies have proven that circulating miRNA may serve as promising diagnostic and prognostic biomarkers in breast cancer. The potential ability of miRNAs in disease screening, staging or even molecular subtype classification makes them valuable tools for early breast cancer patients. It would be of great significance to characterize the miRNA expression profile in CTCs, which could provide reliable biological information originated from tumor. However, some issues need to be addressed before the utility of CTC-specific miRNAs in clinical setting. Taken together, we believe that CTC-specific miRNA detection will be trend for early breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment monitor in near future.