循环肿瘤细胞的研究进展

循环肿瘤细胞（circulating tumor cells，CTCs）指自发或因诊疗操作由实体瘤或转移灶释放进入外周血循环的肿瘤细胞。CTCs能被看作液体活检，具有实时监测功能，是一种非侵入性的新型诊断工具，有助于早期发现肿瘤的微转移，可评估预后，在治疗的监测及个体化治疗上具有重要的临床意义。

Advance on Clinical Impact of Circulating Tumor Cells

Circulating tumor cells are（CTCs） are defined as cells that have detached, spontaneously or as a result of clinical operations, from a primary tumor or its metastatic lesions and circulate in the peripheral blood. CTCs can be regard as liq- uid biopsy, is a new noninvasive diagnostic tool with real--time monitoring function. Detection, monitoring, and molecular analysis of CTCs will provide a powerful approach for the detection of early disease, assessing prognosis , therapeutic response and individualized treatment in established cancers. Except that there must be some relationship between CTCs and tumor stages. The study of CTCs leads to significant improvement in clinical outcome of cancer patients.