Current methodologies to detect circulating tumor cells: a focus on ovarian cancer

xlomafota13 shared this article with you from Inoreader Current methodologies to detect circulating tumor cells: a focus on ovarian cancer Via American Journal of Cancer Research Am J Cancer Res. 2021 Sep 15;11(9):4111-4126. eCollection 2021. ABSTRACT Identification of circulating tumor cells (CTC) in liquid biopsies opens a window of opportunities for the optimization of clinical management of oncologic patients. In ovarian cancer (OC), which involves atypical routes of metastatic spread, CTC analyses may also offer novel insights about the mechanisms behind malignant progression of the disease. However, current methodologies struggle to precisely define CTC number in the peripheral blood of OC patients, and the isolation of viable cells for further characterization is still challenging. The biggest limitation is the lack of methodological standardization for OC CTC detection, preventing comprehensive definition of their clinical potential required for the transfer to practice. Here we describe and compare methods for CTC analysis that have been implemented for OC thus far, discussing pros, cons and improvemen ts needed. We identify biophysical separation approaches as optimal for CTC enrichment. On the other hand, the identification of specific tumor antigens or gene transcripts, despite displaying drawbacks related to tumor heterogeneity, still remains the best approach for OC CTC detection. PMID:34659879 | PMC:PMC8493391 View on the web Inoreader. Take back control of your news feed. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook.