Observational studyBMC cancer2016
Prognostic impact of circulating tumor cell apoptosis and clusters in serial blood samples from patients with metastatic breast cancer in a prospective observational cohort.
Observational study in BMC cancer, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT01322893 (Enumeration and Molecular Characterization of Circulating Tumour Cells in Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer), which is not on this map. Cited by 109 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Enumeration and Molecular Characterization of Circulating Tumour Cells in Women With Metastatic Breast Cancer
Who cites it
109 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 166 citations in OpenAlex.
- Survival and clinicopathological significance of B7-H3 in bladder cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC urology · 2024Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Evaluating the effectiveness of population-based breast cancer service screening: an analysis of parsimonious patient survival information with the time-varying Cox model.International journal of epidemiology · 2022Trial
- A Novel Workflow to Enrich and Isolate Patient-Matched EpCAMInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2017Trial
- Micro/Nanostructured Materials and Microfluidic Diagnostic Platforms Enable Multimodal Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells.Exploration (Beijing, China) · 2026Review
- Circulating tumor cell viability during and after radiotherapy mirrors treatment response in cancer patients.Molecular oncology · 2026Article
- Fast enrichment and detection of circulating tumor cells from large volumes of whole blood of breast cancer patients utilizing a functionalized bioaffinity CTC filtration membrane.International journal of cancer · 2026Article
- Circulating Tumor Cells: Emerging Frontiers in Cancer Technology.Expert reviews in molecular medicine · 2026Review
- Extracellular matrix mediates circulating tumor cell clustering in triple-negative breast cancer metastasis.Nature communications · 2026Article
- Role of circulating tumor cell clusters in breast cancer.Translational breast cancer research : a journal focusing on translational research in breast cancer · 2026Review
- Liquid Biopsy's Role in Head and Neck Tumors: Changing Paradigms in the Era of Precision Medicine.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Liquid biopsy in breast cancer: Redefining precision medicine.The journal of liquid biopsy · 2025Review
- Computational ranking identifies Plexin-B2 in circulating tumor cell clustering with monocytes in breast cancer metastasis.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Apoptotic cells promote circulating tumor cell survival and metastasis.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Clinical Validity of Repeated Circulating Tumor Cell Enumeration as an Early Treatment Monitoring Tool for Metastatic Breast Cancer in the PREDICT Global Pooled Analysis.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2025Article
- Emerin Dysregulation Drives the Very-Small-Nuclear Phenotype and Lineage Plasticity That Associate with a Clinically Aggressive Subtype of Prostate Cancer.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2025Article
- Liquid biopsy in TNBC: significance in diagnostics, prediction, and treatment monitoring.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Circulating tumor cells in breast cancer: clinical validity and utility.NPJ breast cancer · 2024Review
- Personalized treatment approach for HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2024Review
- A Preliminary Analysis of Circulating Tumor Microemboli from Breast Cancer Patients during Follow-Up Visits.Current oncology (Toronto, Ont.) · 2024Article
49 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundPresence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is a validated prognostic marker in metastatic breast cancer. Additional prognostic information may be obtained by morphologic characterization of CTCs. We explored whether apoptotic CTCs, CTC clusters and leukocytes attached to CTCs are associated with breast cancer subtype and prognosis at base-line (BL) and in follow-up (FU) blood samples in patients with metastatic breast cancer scheduled for first-line systemic treatment.
methodsPatients with a first metastatic breast cancer event were enrolled in a prospective observational study prior to therapy initiation and the CellSearch system (Janssen Diagnostics) was used for CTC enumeration and characterization. We enrolled patients (N = 52) with ≥5 CTC/7.5 ml blood at BL (median 45, range 5-668) and followed them with blood sampling for 6 months during therapy. CTCs were evaluated for apoptotic changes, CTC clusters (≥3 nuclei), and leukocytes associated with CTC (WBC-CTC, ≥1 CTC + ≥1 leukocytes) at all time-points by visual examination of the galleries generated by the CellTracks Analyzer.
resultsAt BL, patients with triple-negative and HER2-positive breast cancer had blood CTC clusters present more frequently than patients with hormone receptor-positive cancer (P = 0.010). No morphologic characteristics were associated with prognosis at BL, whereas patients with apoptotic CTCs or clusters in FU samples had worse prognosis compared to patients without these characteristics with respect to progression-free (PFS) and overall survival (OS) (log-rank test: P = 0.0012 or lower). Patients with apoptotic or clustered CTCs at any time-point had impaired prognosis in multivariable analyses adjusting for number of CTCs and other prognostic factors (apoptosis: HROS = 25, P < 0.001; cluster: HROS = 7.0, P = 0.006). The presence of WBC-CTCs was significantly associated with an inferior prognosis in terms of OS at 6 months in multivariable analysis.
conclusionsPatients with a continuous presence of apoptotic or clustered CTCs in FU samples after systemic therapy initiation had worse prognosis than patients without these CTC characteristics. In patients with ≥5 CTC/7.5 ml blood at BL, morphologic characterization of persistent CTCs could be an important prognostic marker during treatment, in addition to CTC enumeration alone. Clinical Trials (NCT01322893), registration date 21 March 2011.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.