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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Christopher D Hart, Francesca Galardi, Francesca De Luca, Marta Pestrin, and Angelo Di Leo declare that they have no conflict of interest.
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This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.
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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