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Clinical Utility of Circulating Tumour Cell Detection in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer

  • Lung Cancer (HA Wakelee, Section Editor)
  • Published:
Current Treatment Options in Oncology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Opinion statement

Recent years have witnessed increased interest in the detection of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) for diagnosis, monitoring, and treatment decision making in patients with cancer. Factors that have led to accelerated research in this field include advances in technologies for examination of intact CTCs, personalised medicine with treatment selection according to molecular characteristics, and continued lack of understanding of the biology of treatment resistance and metastasis. CTCs offer promise as a surrogate for tissue where there is insufficient tissue for molecular analysis and where there is a requirement to serially monitor molecular changes in cancer cells through treatment or on progression. In patients with either small cell or non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), there is evidence that CTC number is prognostic and that CTCs counted before and after treatment mirror treatment response. In patients with molecularly defined subtypes of NSCLC, CTCs demonstrate the same molecular changes as the cancer cells of the tumour. However, CTCs are not quite ready for “primetime” in the lung cancer clinic. There are still more questions than answers with respect to the optimal technologies for their detection and analysis, their biological significance, and their clinical utility. Despite this the current pace of progress in CTC technology development seems set to make “liquid biopsies” a clinical reality within the next decade. For the everyday clinician and clinical trialist, it will be important to maintain knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of the technologies and evolving evidence base for CTCs as a routinely used diagnostic tool.

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Conflict of Interest

Alberto Fusi, Robert Metcalf, Matthew Krebs, Caroline Dive, and Fiona Blackhall 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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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, The Christie NHS Foundation Trust, Wilmslow Road, Withington, Manchester, M20 4BX, UK

    Alberto Fusi MD, Robert Metcalf MRCP, Matthew Krebs MRCP, PhD & Fiona Blackhall FRCP, PhD

  2. Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology Group, Cancer Research UK Manchester Research Institute, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK

    Robert Metcalf MRCP, Matthew Krebs MRCP, PhD, Caroline Dive PhD & Fiona Blackhall FRCP, PhD

Authors
  1. Alberto Fusi MD
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  2. Robert Metcalf MRCP
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  3. Matthew Krebs MRCP, PhD
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  5. Fiona Blackhall FRCP, PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Fiona Blackhall FRCP, PhD.

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Fusi, A., Metcalf, R., Krebs, M. et al. Clinical Utility of Circulating Tumour Cell Detection in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 14, 610–622 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-013-0253-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-013-0253-5

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