Circulating tumor cells are metastatic precursors in several cancer types. Their biology and clinical utility are subject to numerous investigations, yet one aspect that is often neglected is their entanglement with the tumor microenvironment, namely the cross talk with stromal and immune cells and their relationships with other tumor-derived components such as circulating tumor DNA and extracellular vesicles in circulation. We will focus our short review specifically on these aspects, i.e., providing some examples of the liaison that circulating tumor cells have with stromal or immune cells and illustrating their relationship with other circulating tumor derivatives such as circulating tumor DNA and extracellular vesicles.

循环肿瘤细胞是几种癌症类型的转移前体。它们的生物学和临床效用受到大量研究，但经常被忽视的一个方面是它们与肿瘤微环境的纠缠，即与基质和免疫细胞的串扰以及它们与其他肿瘤衍生成分（如循环肿瘤 DNA 和循环中的细胞外囊泡。我们将专门针对这些方面进行简短的回顾，即提供一些循环肿瘤细胞与基质或免疫细胞之间联系的例子，并说明它们与其他循环肿瘤衍生物（如循环肿瘤 DNA 和细胞外囊泡）的关系。