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Circulating Tumour Cells as Liquid Biopsy in Breast Cancer—Advancing from Prognostic to Predictive Potential

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Abstract

Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) in breast cancer offer a unique opportunity to sample tissue that can derive from multiple sites in the body and may be more representative of the whole disease than a single standard biopsy. Their presence is now clearly associated with worse prognosis and can indicate treatment failure. Improved techniques to isolate single CTCs have also permitted in-depth molecular studies, revealing marked heterogeneity. Whilst giving a novel window into tumour evolution and resistance, it also raises new questions regarding treatment approaches. The ongoing challenge remains the translation of new information gleaned from CTCs into clinical benefit.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the Sando Pitigliani Foundation, the Breast Cancer Research Fund, and the Italian Association for Cancer Research (AIRC) for their generous support.

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Conflict of Interest

Christopher D Hart, Francesca Galardi, Francesca De Luca, Marta Pestrin, and Angelo Di Leo declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Human and Animal Rights and Informed Consent

This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

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Correspondence to Angelo Di Leo.

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This article is part of the Topical Collection on Systemic Research

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Hart, C.D., Galardi, F., De Luca, F. et al. Circulating Tumour Cells as Liquid Biopsy in Breast Cancer—Advancing from Prognostic to Predictive Potential. Curr Breast Cancer Rep 7, 53–58 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12609-014-0177-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12609-014-0177-5

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