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Circulating Tumor Cells in the context Non-small Cell Lung Cancer

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Atlas of Liquid Biopsy

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Abstract

Lung cancer (LC) is the most incident neoplasm with the highest lethality rates, responsible for 1.8 million (18.4%) deaths in 2018. The great majority of LC (about 80–85%) is non-small cell (NSCLC), whose 5-year survival is about 50%, falling to 1% with the progress of the disease. The majority (80%) of diagnoses are late and with locally advanced disease (22%) or metastatic disease (57%), requiring chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy. The NSCLC is a group of histologically heterogeneous tumors, a characteristic that can be explained by intratumoral heterogeneity (IHT) derived from molecular and genetic changes beyond the expression of immunological biomarkers. This knowledge enabled the development of drugs that interact with specific mutations such as tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) and immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) capable of directing the immune response to target tumor cells. To analyze the efficacy of treatment with ICIs and the somatic mutations in NSCLC, it is necessary to evaluate in real time, the changes that occur in tumor cells with the use of these therapies. However, it is difficult to perform this evaluation due to the invasive nature of conventional biopsy. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), known as “liquid biopsy,” have the potential to monitor the response to treatments, being, in addition, a promising source of early diagnosis in the NSCLC.

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  1. International Research Center, AC Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, Brazil

    Jacqueline Aparecida Torres

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  1. AC Camargo Cancer Center, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Ludmilla Thomé Domingos Chinen

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Torres, J.A. (2021). Circulating Tumor Cells in the context Non-small Cell Lung Cancer. In: Chinen, L.T.D. (eds) Atlas of Liquid Biopsy. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69879-9_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-69879-9_5

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