Dietary phytochemicals have obtained significant attention in cancer prevention. In this study, the metastasis inhibition effects of eleven phytochemicals was evaluated by monitoring the number changes of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the overall procession of cancer metastasis using in vivo CTC capture method. Meanwhile, the anticancer effect on primary tumor growth and lung metastasis were also investigated on breast tumor BALB/c mouse model. At selected dose, the primary tumor growth were suppressed for all of the eleven food phytochemicals except β-carotene. The numbers of lung metastases were reduced and increased tendency of the number of captured CTCs in the blood circulation were delayed in all groups of eleven food phytochemicals. These results indicate that phytochemicals could be the exquisitely suitable candidates for the development of novel therapeutic agents, and the in vivo CTC capture method provided a convenient approach to monitor the procession of tumor metastasis.

饮食中的植物化学物质已在预防癌症中获得了极大的关注。在这项研究中，通过使用体内监测循环肿瘤细胞在整个癌症转移过程中循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）的数量变化，评估了11种植物化学物质的转移抑制作用CTC捕获方法。同时，还在乳腺癌BALB / c小鼠模型上研究了其对原发性肿瘤生长和肺转移的抗癌作用。在选定的剂量下，除β-胡萝卜素外，所有十一种食品植物化学物质均抑制了原发性肿瘤的生长。在所有11种食品植物化学物质的组中，肺转移的数量减少了，血液循环中捕获的四氯化碳数量增加的趋势被延迟了。这些结果表明，植物化学物质可能是开发新型治疗剂的最佳候选者，而体内CTC捕获方法为监测肿瘤转移的进程提供了一种方便的方法。