ReviewBMJ oncology2024
Circulating tumour cell clusters: isolation, biological significance and therapeutic implications.
Review in BMJ oncology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 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
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- Electrochemical Biosensors for Circulating Tumor Cells and ctDNA: Emerging Strategies for Precision Oncology.Annals of biomedical engineering · 2026Review
- An inertial-based spiral device for separating rare tumor cells from liquid biopsies.Bioengineering & translational medicine · 2026Article
- NNMT-associated metabolic-thromboinflammatory-immune co-activation in heterogeneous CTC clusters: a hypothesis-generating computational framework".BMC cancer · 2026Article
- Myeloid-derived suppressor cells in cancer: biology, regulatory networks and theranostic prospects.Signal transduction and targeted therapy · 2026Review
- Metabolic pattern changes of macrophages during cancer development and progression.Journal of translational medicine · 2026Review
- Is cancer the result of uncontrolled cellular growth? a glance into the tumorigenic process.Cancer cell international · 2026Review
- Article
- Exploring metabolic dynamics of cancer metastasis through in vitro models.Discover oncology · 2026Review
- Lactate, a Spearhead of Cancer Aggressiveness: Metabolic Reprogramming, Immune Suppression, and Metastatic Progression.Medical principles and practice : international journal of the Kuwait University, Health Science Centre · 2026Review
- Role of circulating tumor cell clusters in breast cancer.Translational breast cancer research : a journal focusing on translational research in breast cancer · 2026Review
- Interplay of oxidative stress and antioxidant mechanisms in cancer development and progression.Archives of toxicology · 2026Review
- Assessment of Imaging Mass Cytometry (IMC) as a Tool to Characterize Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) in Preclinical Mouse Models.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2025Article
- Circulating tumour cells and circulating tumour DNA in head and neck cancer: from molecular insights to clinical impact.Cancer metastasis reviews · 2025Review
- Bone mineral density changes following immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy: insights from a case series analysis.Osteoporosis international : a journal established as result of cooperation between the European Foundation for Osteoporosis and the National Osteoporosis Foundation of the USA · 2025Article
- Unsupervised detection of rare events in liquid biopsy assays.NPJ precision oncology · 2025Article
- Targeting circulating tumor cell‒neutrophil interactions: nanoengineered strategies for inhibiting cancer metastasis.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2025Review
- Detection and isolation of viable cancer cells mediated by spytag and spycatcher using conditionally replicative adenovirus and magnetic microbeads.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Circulating tumor cells: indicators of cancer progression, plasticity and utility for therapies.Pathology oncology research : POR · 2025Review
- Clinical significance and heterogeneity of circulating tumor cells and clusters in breast cancer subtypes.PeerJ · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
16 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and CTC clusters are considered metastatic precursors due to their ability to seed distant metastasis. However, navigating the bloodstream presents a significant challenge for CTCs, as they must endure fluid shear forces and resist detachment-induced anoikis. Consequently, while a large number of cells from the primary tumour may enter the circulation, only a tiny fraction will result in metastasis. Nevertheless, the metastatic potency dramatically increases when CTCs travel in conjunction with other cell types to form CTC clusters, including neutrophils, myeloid-derived suppressor cells, macrophages, platelets, cancer-associated fibroblasts and red blood cells found in circulation. Such heterotypic CTC clustering events have been identified in a variety of cancer types and may serve as intriguing therapeutic targets and novel biomarkers for liquid biopsy. This review summarises recent advances in microfluidic technologies designed for the isolation of CTC clusters and explores the biological properties of distinct types of CTC clusters within the circulatory system. Investigation of the mechanisms of CTC cluster-blood microenvironment interactions may offer a promising avenue for gaining fresh insights into CTC cluster-mediated metastatic progression and reveal potential opportunities for devising personalised antimetastasis treatments.
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Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.