Impact of label-free technologies in head and neck cancer circulating tumour cells.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The ability to identify high risk head and neck cancer (HNC) patients with disseminated disease prior to presenting with clinically detectable metastases holds remarkable potential. A fraction of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are invasive cancer cells which mediate metastasis by intravasation, survival and extravasation from the blood stream to metastatic sites. CTCs have been cleared by the FDA for use as surrogate markers of overall survival and progression free survival for breast, prostate and colorectal cancers using the CellSearch® system. However, the clinical significance of CTCs in head and neck cancer patients has yet to be determined. There has been a significant shift in CTC enrichment platforms, away from exclusively single marker selection, to epitope-ind

SUBMITTER: Kulasinghe A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5342074 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature