Review
Clinical relevance and biology of circulating tumor cells
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* Corresponding author: Klaus Pantel pantel@uke.uni-hamburg.de
1 Department of Tumour Biology, University Medical Centre Hamburg-Eppendorf, Martinistr. 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany
2 University Medical Centre, Saint-Eloi Hospital, Institute of Research in Biotherapy, Laboratory of Rare Human Circulating Cells, 80 avenue Augustin Fliche, 34295 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
3 University Medical Centre, Laboratory of Cell and Hormonal Biology, Arnaud de Villeneuve Hospital, 37, avenue du Doyen Gaston Giraud, 34295 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
4 University Institute of Clinical Research UM1 - EA2415 - Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Public Health, 641 avenue du Doyen G. Giraud, 34093 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Breast Cancer Research 2011, 13:228 doi:10.1186/bcr2940
Published: 1 November 2011Abstract
Most breast cancer patients die due to metastases, and the early onset of this multistep process is usually missed by current tumor staging modalities. Therefore, ultrasensitive techniques have been developed to enable the enrichment, detection, isolation and characterization of disseminated tumor cells in bone marrow and circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of cancer patients. There is increasing evidence that the presence of these cells is associated with an unfavorable prognosis related to metastatic progression in the bone and other organs. This review focuses on investigations regarding the biology and clinical relevance of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer.