ReviewInternational journal of molecular sciences2020
Circulating Tumor Cell Clusters: United We Stand Divided We Fall.
Review in International journal of molecular sciences, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 85 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
85 citing papers in PubMed, 135 citations in OpenAlex.
- The immune phenotype of circulating tumor cells: from escape mechanisms to immunotherapy navigation.Biomarker research · 2026Review
- Circulating tumour cells for guiding antibody‒drug conjugate therapy: Role of artificial intelligence.Clinical and translational medicine · 2026Review
- Current Advances of Molecular Biomarkers and Liquid Biopsies Techniques in Ovarian Cancer.Cancer medicine · 2026Review
- Lactate metabolism and lactylation in cancer: from pathogenesis to therapeutic advances.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- The Pro-Metastatic Roles of ROS.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Automatic classification of circulating blood cell clusters based on multi-channel flow cytometry imaging.Engineering applications of artificial intelligence · 2026Article
- Detection of circulating tumor cells and microemboli in the blood of lung adenocarcinoma in situ patients case reports.Discover oncology · 2025Article
- Automatic Classification of Circulating Blood Cell Clusters based on Multi-channel Flow Cytometry Imaging.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Representation learning enables robust single cell phenotyping in whole slide liquid biopsy imaging.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Circulating tumor cells: mechanisms and clinical significance in colorectal cancer metastasis.Molecular cancer · 2025Review
- Energy stress and adaptation strategy of tumor cells in different microenvironments: from primary tumors to distant metastases.Acta biochimica et biophysica Sinica · 2025Review
- Circulating tumor cells and clusters as liquid biomarkers for the diagnosis and prognosis of neuroblastoma.BMC cancer · 2025Article
- Targeting circulating tumor cell‒neutrophil interactions: nanoengineered strategies for inhibiting cancer metastasis.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2025Review
- Contrastive Representation Learning for Single Cell Phenotyping in Whole Slide Imaging of Enrichment-free Liquid Biopsy.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Clinical significance of stratifying prostate cancer patients through specific circulating genes.Molecular oncology · 2025Article
- Molecular Underpinnings of Brain Metastases.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- Multifaceted Approaches in Epithelial Cell Adhesion Molecule-Mediated Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Circulating tumor cell markers for early detection and drug resistance assessment through liquid biopsy.Frontiers in oncology · 2025Review
- Development and validation of a novel combinational index of liquid biopsy biomarker for longitudinal lung cancer patient management.The journal of liquid biopsy · 2024Article
- Current biological implications and clinical relevance of metastatic circulating tumor cells.Clinical and experimental medicine · 2024Review
25 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
9 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and CTC clusters, also known as tumor microemboli, in biological fluids has long been described. Intensive research on single CTCs has made a significant contribution in understanding tumor invasion, metastasis tropism, and intra-tumor heterogeneity. Moreover, their being minimally invasive biomarkers has positioned them for diagnosis, prognosis, and recurrence monitoring tools. Initially, CTC clusters were out of focus, but major recent advances in the knowledge of their biogenesis and dissemination reposition them as critical actors in the pathophysiology of cancer, especially metastasis. Increasing evidence suggests that "united" CTCs, organized in clusters, resist better and carry stronger metastatic capacities than "divided" single CTCs. This review gathers recent insight on CTC cluster origin and dissemination. We will focus on their distinct molecular package necessary to resist multiple cell deaths that all circulating cells normally face. We will describe the molecular basis of their increased metastatic potential as compared to single CTCs. We will consider their clinical relevance as prognostic biomarkers. Finally, we will propose future directions for research and clinical applications in this promising topic in cancer.
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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.