Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have shown promising potential as liquid biopsies that facilitate early detection, prognosis, therapeutic target selection and monitoring treatment response. CTCs in most cancer patients are low in abundance and heterogeneous in morphological and phenotypic profiles, which complicate their enrichment and subsequent characterization. Several methodologies for CTC enrichment and characterization have been developed over the past few years. However, integrating recent advances in CTC biology into these methodologies and the selection of appropriate enrichment and characterization methods for specific applications are needed to improve the reliability of CTC biopsies. In this review, we summarize recent advances in the studies of CTC biology, including the mechanisms of their generation and their potential forms of existence in blood, as well as the current CTC enrichment technologies. We then critically examine the selection of methods for appropriately enriching CTCs for further investigation of their clinical applications.

中文翻译：

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循环肿瘤细胞：将生物学见解转移到检测中


循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）作为液体活检显示出巨大的潜力，有助于早期检测、预后、治疗靶点选择和监测治疗反应。大多数癌症患者中的 CTC 丰度较低，且形态和表型特征具有异质性，这使得它们的富集和后续表征变得复杂。在过去几年中，已经开发了多种 CTC 富集和表征方法。然而，需要将 CTC 生物学的最新进展整合到这些方法中，并为特定应用选择适当的富集和表征方法，以提高 CTC 活检的可靠性。在这篇综述中，我们总结了CTC生物学研究的最新进展，包括它们的产生机制和它们在血液中的潜在存在形式，以及当前的CTC富集技术。然后，我们严格审查适当富集 CTC 的方法选择，以进一步研究其临床应用。