Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Medical oncology

Clinical value of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer

Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology volume 8, pages 696–698 (2011)Cite this article

Subjects

In a trial in patients with metastatic breast cancer, the prognostic value of the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) at baseline was independent of tumor subtype, except in patients with HER2-positive disease treated with anti-HER2 targeted therapy. These data support the use of CTC detection as a tool contributing to personalized medicine.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Pantel, K., Alix-Panabieres, C. & Riethdorf, S. Cancer micrometastases. Nat. Rev. Clin. Oncol. 6, 339–351 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Cristofanilli, M. et al. Circulating tumor cells, disease progression, and survival in metastatic breast cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 351, 781–791 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Cristofanilli, M. et al. Circulating tumor cells: a novel prognostic factor for newly diagnosed metastatic breast cancer. J. Clin. Oncol. 23, 1420–1430 (2005).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Pantel, K. & Alix-Panabieres, C. Circulating tumor cells in cancer patients: challenges and perspectives. Trends Mol. Med. 16, 398–406 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Perou, C. M. et al. Molecular portraits of human breast tumors. Nature 406, 747–752 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Lehmann, B. D. et al. Identification of human triple-negative breast cancer subtypes and preclinical models for selection of targeted therapies. J. Clin. Invest. 121, 2750–2767 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Sieuwerts, A. M. et al. Anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule antibodies and the detection of circulating normal-like breast tumor cells. J. Natl Cancer Inst. 101, 61–66 (2009).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Mostert, B. et al. Detection of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer may improve through enrichment with anti-CD146. Breast Cancer Res. Treat. 127, 33–41 (2010).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Giordano, A. et al. Circulating tumor cells in immunohistochemical subtypes of metastatic breast cancer: lack of prediction in HER2-positive disease treated with targeted therapy. Ann. Oncol. http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdr434.

  10. Sieuwerts, A. M. et al. mRNA and microRNA expression profiles in circulating tumor cells and primary tumors of metastatic breast cancer patients. Clin. Cancer Res. 17, 3600–3618 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, Daniel den Hoed Cancer Center/Josephine Nefkens Institute and Cancer Genomics Center, Erasmus University Medical Center, 's Gravendijkwal 230, Rotterdam, 3015, GE, The Netherlands

    Stefan Sleijfer & John A. Foekens

Authors
  1. Stefan Sleijfer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. John A. Foekens
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John A. Foekens.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare that they receive grant support from Veridex, a Johnson & Johnson company.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sleijfer, S., Foekens, J. Clinical value of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 8, 696–698 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2011.167

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2011.167

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing: Cancer

Sign up for the Nature Briefing: Cancer newsletter — what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly.

Get what matters in cancer research, free to your inbox weekly. Sign up for Nature Briefing: Cancer