ArticleNPJ breast cancer2021
Circulating tumor cell number and endocrine therapy index in ER positive metastatic breast cancer patients.
Article in NPJ breast cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
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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.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 26 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Randomized Trial of Fulvestrant, Everolimus, and Anastrozole for the Front-line Treatment of Patients with Advanced Hormone Receptor-positive Breast Cancer, SWOG S1222.Clinical cancer research : an official journal of the American Association for Cancer Research · 2022Trial
- Circulating tumor cells: Blood-based detection, molecular biology, and clinical applications.Cancer cell · 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
- Knowledge-map and research trends of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer: a scientometric analysis.Discover oncology · 2024Article
- Miniaturized protein profiling permits targeted signaling pathway analysis in individual circulating tumor cells to improve personalized treatment.Journal of translational medicine · 2024Article
- Research progress of CTC, ctDNA, and EVs in cancer liquid biopsy.Frontiers in oncology · 2024Review
- Circulating Tumour Cells: Detection and Application in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer.International journal of molecular sciences · 2023Review
- Utilization of Circulating Tumor Cells in the Management of Solid Tumors.Journal of personalized medicine · 2023Review
- Liquid Biopsy in the Management of Breast Cancer Patients: Where Are We Now and Where Are We Going.Diagnostics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles as Complementary Prognostic Factors to Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Breast Cancer.JCO precision oncology · 2023Article
- Circulating Tumor Cells and Breast Cancer Metastasis: From Enumeration to Somatic Mutational Profile.Journal of clinical medicine · 2022Article
- Detection and Characterization of Estrogen Receptor α Expression of Circulating Tumor Cells as a Prognostic Marker.Cancers · 2022Article
- [Recent advances in isolation and detection of circulating tumor cells with a microfluidic system].Se pu = Chinese journal of chromatography · 2022Review
- Circulating tumor cells: biology and clinical significance.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2021Review
- Circulating Tumor Cells as a Tool to Untangle the Breast Cancer Heterogeneity Issue.Biomedicines · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
19 authors at 12 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are prognostic in metastatic breast cancer (MBC). The CTC-endocrine therapy index (CTC-ETI), consisting of CTC-ER (estrogen receptor), BCL2, human epidermal growth factor receptor (HER2), and Ki67 expression, might predict resistance to endocrine therapy (ET) in patients with ER-positive MBC. One hundred twenty-one patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative MBC initiating a new ET after ≥1 lines of ET were enrolled in a prospective, multi-institutional clinical trial. CTC-ETI and clinical/imaging follow-up were performed at baseline and serial time points. Progression-free survival (PFS) and rapid progression (RP; determined at the 3-month time point) were primary endpoints. Associations with clinical outcomes used logrank and Fisher's exact tests. At baseline, 36% (38/107) of patients had ≥5 CTC/7.5 ml whole blood (WB). Patients with ≥5 vs. <5 CTC/7.5 ml WB had significantly worse PFS (median 3.3 vs. 5.9 months, P = 0.03). Elevated CTC at 1 month was associated with even worse PFS (1.9 vs. 5.0 months from the 1-month sample, P < 0.001). Low, intermediate, and high CTC-ETI were observed in 71 (66%), 8 (8%), and 28 (26%) patients, with median PFS of 6.9, 8.5, and 2.8 months, respectively (P = 0.008). Patients with high vs. low CTC and CTC-ETI more frequently experienced RP (CTC: 66% vs. 41%; P = 0.03; CTC-ETI: 79% vs. 40%; P = 0.002). In conclusion, CTC enumeration and the CTC-ETI assay are prognostic at baseline and follow-up in patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative MBC starting new ET. CTC at first follow-up might identify a group of patients with ER-positive MBC that could forego ET, but CTC-ETI did not contribute further.
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Registered trials
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