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Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is typically an incurable disease with high mortality rates; thus, early identification of metastatic features and disease recurrence through precise biomarkers is crucial. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) consisting of heterogeneous subpopulations with different morphol...

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Autores principales: Fridrichova, Ivana, Kalinkova, Lenka, Ciernikova, Sona
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603393/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36292996
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012141
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author Fridrichova, Ivana
Kalinkova, Lenka
Ciernikova, Sona
author_facet Fridrichova, Ivana
Kalinkova, Lenka
Ciernikova, Sona
author_sort Fridrichova, Ivana
collection PubMed
description Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is typically an incurable disease with high mortality rates; thus, early identification of metastatic features and disease recurrence through precise biomarkers is crucial. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) consisting of heterogeneous subpopulations with different morphology and genetic, epigenetic, and gene expression profiles represent promising candidate biomarkers for metastatic potential. The experimentally verified role of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cancer dissemination has not been clearly described in BC patients, but the stemness features of CTCs strongly contributes to metastatic potency. Single CTCs have been shown to be protected in the bloodstream against recognition by the immune system through impaired interactions with T lymphocytes and NK cells, while associations of heterotypic CTC clusters with platelets, leucocytes, neutrophils, tumor-associated macrophages, and fibroblasts improve their tumorigenic behavior. In addition to single CTC and CTC cluster characteristics, we reviewed CTC evaluation methods and clinical studies in early and metastatic BCs. The variable CTC tests were developed based on specific principles and strategies. However, CTC count and the presence of CTC clusters were shown to be most clinically relevant in existing clinical trials. Despite the known progress in CTC research and sampling of BC patients, implementation of CTCs and CTC clusters in routine diagnostic and treatment strategies still requires improvement in detection sensitivity and precise molecular characterizations, focused predominantly on the role of CTC clusters for their higher metastatic potency.
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spelling pubmed-96033932022-10-27 Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters? Fridrichova, Ivana Kalinkova, Lenka Ciernikova, Sona Int J Mol Sci Review Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) is typically an incurable disease with high mortality rates; thus, early identification of metastatic features and disease recurrence through precise biomarkers is crucial. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) consisting of heterogeneous subpopulations with different morphology and genetic, epigenetic, and gene expression profiles represent promising candidate biomarkers for metastatic potential. The experimentally verified role of epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition in cancer dissemination has not been clearly described in BC patients, but the stemness features of CTCs strongly contributes to metastatic potency. Single CTCs have been shown to be protected in the bloodstream against recognition by the immune system through impaired interactions with T lymphocytes and NK cells, while associations of heterotypic CTC clusters with platelets, leucocytes, neutrophils, tumor-associated macrophages, and fibroblasts improve their tumorigenic behavior. In addition to single CTC and CTC cluster characteristics, we reviewed CTC evaluation methods and clinical studies in early and metastatic BCs. The variable CTC tests were developed based on specific principles and strategies. However, CTC count and the presence of CTC clusters were shown to be most clinically relevant in existing clinical trials. Despite the known progress in CTC research and sampling of BC patients, implementation of CTCs and CTC clusters in routine diagnostic and treatment strategies still requires improvement in detection sensitivity and precise molecular characterizations, focused predominantly on the role of CTC clusters for their higher metastatic potency. MDPI 2022-10-12 /pmc/articles/PMC9603393/ /pubmed/36292996 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012141 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Review
Fridrichova, Ivana
Kalinkova, Lenka
Ciernikova, Sona
Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?
title Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?
title_full Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?
title_fullStr Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?
title_full_unstemmed Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?
title_short Clinical Relevancy of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer: Epithelial or Mesenchymal Characteristics, Single Cells or Clusters?
title_sort clinical relevancy of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer: epithelial or mesenchymal characteristics, single cells or clusters?
topic Review
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603393/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36292996
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012141
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