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Updated: Jan 20, 2026
Dreaming
CTCs 2020: Great Expectations or Unreasonable Dreams
Elisabetta Rossi1,2, Francesco Fabbri3
1Department of Surgery, Oncology and Gastroenterology, Oncology Section, University of Padova, 35124 Padova, Italy.
Abstract:
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cellular elements that can be scattered into the bloodstream from primary cancer, metastasis, and even from a disseminated tumor cell (DTC) reservoir. CTCs are "seeds", able to give rise to new metastatic lesions. Since metastases are the cause of about 90% of cancer-related deaths, the significance of CTCs is unquestionable. However, two major issues have stalled their full clinical exploitation: rarity and heterogeneity. Therefore, their full clinical potential has only been predicted. Finding new ways of studying and using such tremendously rare and important events can open new areas of research in the field of cancer research, and could drastically improve tumor companion diagnostics, personalized treatment strategies, overall patients management, and reduce healthcare costs.
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