Circulating tumor cell

In addition to the cellular expression on malignant blast cells in AML, elevated levels of suPAR were found in plasma from leukemia patients [18]. In a longitudinal study, in which patients receiving chemotherapy were monitored, it was demonstrated that the suPAR level in plasma from patients with AML correlated with the number of circulating tumor cells and that these were reduced after chemotherapy. In plasma from AML patients, suPAR(II III) was detected in addition to intact suPAR. This is in contrast to findings in plasma from healthy individuals and from the ovarian cancer patients described above [144]. suPAR(II III) was also present in plasma made from bone marrow aspirates. The other cleaved form, uPAR(I), was only identified in urine. Lysates of the leukemic cells contained both intact uPAR and uPAR(II-III). The amounts of suPAR(II III) in plasma and uPAR(I) in urine were decreased following chemotherapy. In healthy controls, intact uPAR was detected in lysates from mononuclear cells in blood and suPAR(I-III) in plasma and bone marrow aspirates, while suPAR(II-III) was detected in urine [18]. 

Mustjoki S, Sidenius N, Sier CF, Blasi F, Elonen E, Alitalo R, et al. Soluble urokinase receptor levels correlate with number of circulating tumor cells in acute myeloid leukemia and decrease rapidly during chemotherapy. Cancer Res 2000 60(24) 7126-7132. 

Sha MY, Xu HX, Natan MJ, Cromer R (2008) Surface-enhanced Raman scattering tags for rapid and homogeneous detection of circulating tumor cells in the presence of human whole blood. J Am Chem Soc 130 17214... 

Zeidman, I. (1961). The fate of circulating tumor cells. I. Passage of cells through capillaries. Cancer Res. 21, 38-39. 

Complete or partial alopecia occurs in the majority (60-90%) of patients who receive anthracyclines, and although it is reversible it can be distressing (24). Scalp cooling during chemotherapy to minimize hair loss is now little used, because of limited efficacy, the discomfort of scalp cooling techniques, and concern about the potential creation of a sanctuary for circulating tumor cells. Alopecia is less frequent (about 35% of patients) in patients who take oral idarubicin 40-45 mg/m every 3 weeks (27). 

Lymphomas are a heterogeneous group of malignancies that arise from mahgnant transformation of immune cells that reside predominantly in lymphoid tissues. They most commonly present as a solid tumor, hut can sometimes present as circulating tumor cells in peripheral hlood. The differing histology of lymphoma cells has... 

These observations are consistent with clinical observation. The T790M has been detected in 50% of patients resistant to gefitinib or erlotinib.75,76 This resistance, as measured by circulating tumor cells harboring T790M, has been shown to increase over time,77 and to be present in untreated patients.78 In the latter study, detection of T790M prior to treatment reduced progression free survival times from 16.5 months to 7.7 months.77... 

Since the publication of the original articles by Smith et al. in 1991 on the detection of circulating tumor cells in the malignant melanoma patients (SIO), many investigators have analyzed circulating tumor cells in the peripheral blood of patients with a variety of solid tumors by conventional RT-PCR. In this section, we first summarize the results from conventional RT-PCR studies and then refer to recent advances in the detection of circulating tumor cells with the quantitative real-time RT-PCR method. We selected melanoma and colorectal cancers, mainly the latter, which is one of the most extensively studied cancers in this compartment. 

As for malignant melanoma, more than 15 study groups have attempted to detect circulating tumor cells using conventional RT-PCR for melanocyte-specific markers, mainly tyrosinase as well as MART -1. Many studies showed a correlation between the detection of tyrosinase RT-PCR positive cells in the peripheral blood and the clinical stage (B4), but not all of the studies (R2). In patients with stage 0, 15 to 30% of the patients were tyrosinase... 

Detection AND Prognostic Values of Circulating Tumor Cells est Preoperative Blood by Conventional... 

Bl. Bessa, X., Elizalde, J. I., Boix, L., Pinol, V., Lacy, A. M., Salo, J., et al.. Lack of prognostic influence of circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood of patients with colorectal cancer. Gastroenterology 120, 1084—1092 (2001). 

Introduction to Immunohistochemical and Molecular Methods in Tumor Diagnosis, and the Detection of Micrometastases and Circulating Tumor Cells... 

One of the first steps to go behind the metastatic cascade is the examination of peripheral blood to detect potential circulating malignant cells. This method is useful to follow-up malignancies spreading via the blood stream such as sarcomas, melanoma, neuroblastoma, prostatic, thyroid and hepatocellular carcinomas. PCR-and RT-PCR-based molecular techniques are found to be the most efficient assay to detect circulating tumor cells in peripheral blood, and allow the detection of one tumor cell in up tolO background nucleated blood cells. However, it is important to consider that the presence of tumor cells in peripheral blood is only one step in a multistep process and not all tumor cells circulating in peripheral blood are able to... 

In conclusion, the modern approach in the diagnosis of tumors is a multistep process, which includes conventional histology, immunohistochemistry, cytogenetics and molecular methods. The early detection of micrometastases and circulating tumor cells before metastatic disease becomes clinically evident gives a better chance for the eradication of residual tumor cells to prevent tumor relapse in addition to its prognostic importance. 

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