Circulating tumour cells for early detection of clinically relevant cancer.

ABSTRACT: Given that cancer mortality is usually a result of late diagnosis, efforts in the field of early detection are paramount to reducing cancer-related deaths and improving patient outcomes. Increasing evidence indicates that metastasis is an early event in patients with aggressive cancers, often occurring even before primary lesions are clinically detectable. Metastases are usually formed from cancer cells that spread to distant non-malignant tissues via the blood circulation, termed circulating tumour cells (CTCs). CTCs have been detected in patients with early stage cancers and, owing to their association with metastasis, might indicate the presence of aggressive disease, thus providing a possible means to expedite diagnosis and treatment initiation for such patients while avoiding overdiag

SUBMITTER: Lawrence R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10237083 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature