Minimal residual disease and circulating tumor cells in breast cancer
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* Corresponding author: Michail Ignatiadis Michail.Ignatiadis@bordet.be
1 Medical Oncology Department and Breast Cancer Translational Research Laboratory, Institut Jules Bordet, 121 Boulevard de Waterloo, 1000 Brussels, Belgium
2 Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55905, USA
Breast Cancer Research 2011, 13:222 doi:10.1186/bcr2906
Published: 25 October 2011Abstract
Tumor cell dissemination in bone marrow or other organs is thought to represent an important step in the metastatic process. The detection of bone marrow disseminated tumor cells is associated with worse outcome in early breast cancer. Moreover, the detection of peripheral blood circulating tumor cells is an adverse prognostic factor in metastatic breast cancer, and emerging data suggest that this is also true for early disease. Beyond enumeration, the characterization of these cells has the potential to improve risk assessment, treatment selection and monitoring, and the development of novel therapeutic agents, and to advance our understanding of the biology of metastasis.