Circulating tumour cells and the epithelial mesenchymal transition in colorectal cancer. Issue 10 (9th July 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Lim, S H-S; Becker, T M; Chua, W; Ng, W L; de Souza, P; Spring, K J
• Is Part Of: Journal of clinical pathology. Volume 67:Issue 10(2014)
• Page Start: 848
• Page End: 853
• Publication Date: 2014-07-09
• Subjects: CIRCULATING TUMOUR CELLS -- COLORECTAL CANCER -- CANCER RESEARCH -- CELL BIOLOGY; Pathology -- Periodicals; Pathology, Molecular -- Periodicals; 616.0705
• DOI: 10.1136/jclinpath-2014-202499
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0021-9746

Abstract

Abstract : Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) hold great potential as liquid biopsies to prognosticate disease and guide treatment in colorectal cancer. However, their emerging role in determining the molecular phenotype of tumour metastasis carries even more promising clinical use in the provision of comprehensive biomarker detection for targeted therapies and determination of drug resistance. The isolation of CTCs is technology dependent, and in the case of epithelial cell adhesion molecule-based platforms, the ability to detect cells that have undergone the epithelial to mesenchymal transition (EMT) is ineffective. CTCs displaying a mesenchymal phenotype are believed to have an increased metastatic potential. The rarity of CTCs provides another challenge in the enumeration of these cells. The future will likely involve the analysis of individual CTCs at any stage of the EMT in order to provide real-time phenotypic and molecular snapshots capable of tracking the dynamic evolution of tumour progression over time.