Research progress of circulating tumor cells

It has been confirmed that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) may be the origin of a wide variety of tumor metastasis, which plays an important role in tumor metastasis, recurrence and treatment-resistant. Through the enrichment detection and analysis of biological characteristics of CTCs, useful information can be provided for the early diagnosis of tumor, assessment of metastasis risk and prognosis, as well as individualized anti-tumor treatment project. In this paper, the research progress on detection of CTCs and its clinical application were reviewed in recent years. Key words: Circulating tumor cells; Epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition; Cell search system