New insights into the correlations between circulating tumor cells and target organ metastasis

Organ-specific metastasis is the primary cause of cancer patient death. The distant metastasis of tumor cells to specific organs depends on both the intrinsic characteristics of the tumor cells and extrinsic factors in their microenvironment. During an intermediate stage of metastasis, circulating t...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Signal transduction and targeted therapy 2023-12, Vol.8 (1), p.465-465, Article 465
Main Authors: Zhan, Qinru, Liu, Bixia, Situ, Xiaohua, Luo, Yuting, Fu, Tongze, Wang, Yanxia, Xie, Zhongpeng, Ren, Lijuan, Zhu, Ying, He, Weiling, Ke, Zunfu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/67/1857
631/67/322
Cancer Research
Cell Biology
Extravasation
Internal Medicine
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Metastases
Metastasis
Microenvironments
Microfluidics
Molecular modelling
Nanotechnology
Oncology
Pathology
Review Article
Tumor cells
Tumors
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Summary:Organ-specific metastasis is the primary cause of cancer patient death. The distant metastasis of tumor cells to specific organs depends on both the intrinsic characteristics of the tumor cells and extrinsic factors in their microenvironment. During an intermediate stage of metastasis, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are released into the bloodstream from primary and metastatic tumors. CTCs harboring aggressive or metastatic features can extravasate to remote sites for continuous colonizing growth, leading to further lesions. In the past decade, numerous studies demonstrated that CTCs exhibited huge clinical value including predicting distant metastasis, assessing prognosis and monitoring treatment response et al. Furthermore, increasingly numerous experiments are dedicated to identifying the key molecules on or inside CTCs and exploring how they mediate CTC-related organ-specific metastasis. Based on the above molecules, more and more inhibitors are being developed to target CTCs and being utilized to completely clean CTCs, which should provide promising prospects to administer advanced tumor. Recently, the application of various nanomaterials and microfluidic technologies in CTCs enrichment technology has assisted to improve our deep insights into the phenotypic characteristics and biological functions of CTCs as a potential therapy target, which may pave the way for us to make practical clinical strategies. In the present review, we mainly focus on the role of CTCs being involved in targeted organ metastasis, especially the latest molecular mechanism research and clinical intervention strategies related to CTCs.
ISSN:2059-3635
2095-9907
2059-3635
DOI:10.1038/s41392-023-01725-9