Clinical Relevance of Circulating Tumor Cells in Prostate Cancer Management

Biomedicines

Maciej Zabel¹  Joanna Budna-Tukan²  Michał Nowicki²  Andrzej Antczak³  Wojciech A. Cieślikowski³ 

[1] Department of Anatomy and Histology, Collegium Medicum, University of Zielona Gora, 65-046 Zielona Gora, Poland;Department of Histology and Embryology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 60-781 Poznan, Poland;Department of Urology, Poznan University of Medical Sciences, 61-285 Poznan, Poland;

关键词: CTC;    liquid biopsy;    cancer biomarkers;    prognostic value;    predictive value;    cancer;   

DOI  :  10.3390/biomedicines9091179

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Given the low specificity of the routinely used biomarker prostate-specific antigen, circulating tumor cell (CTC) enumeration seems to be particularly useful in the monitoring of prostate cancer. In this review, we focused on a few aspects of CTC enumeration in prostate malignancies: prognostic value in metastatic and non-metastatic tumors, role in the monitoring of treatment outcomes, use as a surrogate marker for survival, and other applications, mostly for research purposes. CTC enumeration, without a doubt, offers an attractive perspective in the management of prostate cancer. However, the vast majority of available data about the role of CTC in this malignancy originate from randomized studies of anticancer agents and do not necessarily translate into real-world clinical practice. Further, most studies on the application of CTC in prostate cancer patients were limited to advanced stages of this malignancy. Meanwhile, the role of CTC in the early stages of prostate cancer, in which some patients may present with occult disseminated disease, is still relatively poorly understood, and should thus be studied extensively. Other obstacles in the widespread application of CTC enumeration in routine clinical practice include considerable discrepancies in the number of cells determined with various commercially available systems.

【 授权许可】

Unknown