Circulating cancer stem cells: a novel prognostic predictor of hepatocellular carcinoma

摘要：

Not only tumor progression but also metastasis are the major causes of mortality from a wide range of cancers, including hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). In general, tumor cells frequently leave the primary tumor and form metastatic lesions in distant organs. It has been believed that tumor infiltration of blood vessels at the primary tumor site is responsible for the dissemination of tumor cells and the formation of metastatic lesions in distant organs. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are extremely rare cells found in the blood stream of patients with tumors and it has been believed that these cells contribute to cancer dissemination and lead to the development of metastasis (1). Although CTCs were first detected roughly 140 years ago (2), recent progress in molecular biology and technology has successfully achieved the identification of CTCs in a variety of cancers. Initially, mRNA extracted from peripheral blood mononuclear cells was frequently subjected to reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for the detection of these cells using various tumor markers. In HCC patients, RT-PCR for α-fetroprotein or albumin has been utilized to detect circulating liver cancer cells (3,4); however, this approach is considered inappropriate to produce consistent findings because of the lack of specificity for tumor cells.

所属期刊栏目：2

在线出版日期：2019-07-17（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）

页数：共3页

页码：4-6