ArticleEuropean journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990)2019
Association of clinical outcomes in metastatic breast cancer patients with circulating tumour cell and circulating cell-free DNA.
Article in European journal of cancer (Oxford, England : 1990), 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers.
What it found
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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.
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Who cites it
34 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.
- Biological basis and clinical translation prospects of circulating cell-free DNA in precision management of breast cancer (Review).Oncology letters · 2026Review
- Biomimetic Membrane Interface Technologies for Detection and Isolation of CTCs and EVs: Advances and Opportunities in Liquid Biopsy.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Review
- Liquid biopsy in breast cancer: clinical implications of ctDNA and CTCs in diagnosis, treatment and monitoring.Molecular and cellular biochemistry · 2025Review
- Liquid biopsy in breast cancer: Redefining precision medicine.The journal of liquid biopsy · 2025Review
- 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
- Liquid biopsies in cancer.Molecular biomedicine · 2025Review
- The Combined Assessment of CTC andInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2025Article
- Multifaceted Approaches in Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-Mediated Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Dual Biomarker Strategies for Liquid Biopsy: Integrating Circulating Tumor Cells and Circulating Tumor DNA for Enhanced Tumor Monitoring.Biosensors · 2025Review
- Complementary detection strategies for circulating tumor cells in breast cancer: clinical implications of combining immunofluorescence and cytopathological staining.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Article
- Optical nanomaterial-based detection of biomarkers in liquid biopsy.Journal of hematology & oncology · 2024Review
- c-MET-positive circulating tumor cells and cell-free DNA as independent prognostic factors in hormone receptor-positive/HER2-negative metastatic breast cancer.Breast cancer research : BCR · 2024Article
- Circulating tumor cellsTranslational breast cancer research : a journal focusing on translational research in breast cancer · 2024Review
- Review
- Using cfDNA and ctDNA as Oncologic Markers: A Path to Clinical Validation.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- The Present and Future of Clinical Management in Metastatic Breast Cancer.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Review
- Metabolism-Related Gene Expression in Circulating Tumor Cells from Patients with Early Stage Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.Cancers · 2022Article
- Review
- From Basic Science to Clinical Translation in Kidney Cancer: A Report from the Second Kidney Cancer Research Summit.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2022Article
- A Review of Biosensors for Detecting Tumor Markers in Breast Cancer.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
30 authors at 9 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundBoth circulating tumour cell (CTC) and total circulating cell-free DNA (ccfDNA) predict cancer patient prognosis. However, no study has explored the prognostic value of the combined use of CTC and ccfDNA. We aimed to investigate individual and joint effects of CTC and ccfDNA on clinical outcomes of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) patients.
methodsWe collected 227 blood samples from 117 MBC patients. CTCs were enumerated using the CellSearch System. ccfDNAs were quantified by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction and Qubit fluorometer. The individual and joint effects of CTC and ccfDNA levels on patient progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) were analysed using Cox proportional hazards models.
resultsCompared to patients with <5 CTCs, patients with ≥5 CTCs had a 2.58-fold increased risk of progression and 3.63-fold increased risk of death. High level of ccfDNA was associated with a 2.05-fold increased risk of progression and 3.56-fold increased risk of death. These associations remained significant after adjusting for other important clinical covariates and CTC/ccfDNA levels. CTC and ccfDNA levels had a joint effect on patient outcomes. Compared to patients with low levels of both CTC and ccfDNA, those with high levels of both markers exhibited a >17-fold increased death risk (P < 0.001). Moreover, longitudinal analysis of 132 samples from 22 patients suggested that the inconsistency between CTC level and outcome in some patients could possibly be explained by ccfDNA level.
conclusionsCTC and total ccfDNA levels were individually and jointly associated with PFS and OS in MBC patients.
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