Related Experiment Video For CTC
Updated: Apr 22, 2026
An Ex vivo Culture System to Study Thyroid Development
Published on: June 6, 2014
Determining tissue origin of circulating epithelial cells (CEC) in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer by
Sarah Sorg1, Katharina Pachmann2, Katya Brede-Hekimian3
1Clinic of Nuclear Medicine, Jena University Hospital, Bachstraße 18, 07743 Jena, Germany; Clinic of Internal Medicine II, Division of Haematology and Internal Oncology, Jena University Hospital, Erlanger Allee 101, 07737 Jena, Germany.
Abstract:
The aim of this study is to determine whether circulating epithelial cells (CEC) detected in patients with differentiated thyroid cancer (DTC) stem from the thyroid gland. CEC have been described to increase in patients with progressive cancer disease and thus have been used as a marker of tumour cell dissemination. CEC were selected from venous blood samples of five DTC patients and analysis of thyroid-specific mRNA (i.e. Tg, TSH-R, TPO, NIS) was performed on a single cell level. 16/48 cells were positive for at least three different thyroid-mRNA transcripts, predominantly found in patients with detectable serum thyroglobulin. In conclusion, evidence was found that in patients with detectable serum thyroglobulin, most of the CECs originate from the thyroid gland. However, further investigations including a larger sample size are needed to validate the clinical impact of this method.
