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Updated: Nov 24, 2025
Intracarotid Cancer Cell Injection to Produce Mouse Models of Brain Metastasis
Published on: February 8, 2017
Insights into brain metastasis: Recent advances in circulating tumor cell research
Remi Klotz1,2, Min Yu1,2
1Department of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California.
Background:
How tumor cells disseminate to brain and establish brain metastasis remains partly an unsolved problem. This devastating complication of many cancers is initiated by a rare subset of the circulating tumor cells (CTCs) shed into the blood stream. Thus, the profiling of the molecular properties in these brain metastasis-initiating CTCs is essential to uncover the mechanisms underlying brain metastasis.
Recent Findings:
Important efforts to improve the enrichment and detection of CTCs enabled the detailed molecular and functional analysis of CTCs that drive brain metastasis. In this review, we highlight key findings on existing preclinical studies that provide insights toward a comprehensive picture of brain metastasis-precursors in CTCs and the potential clinical implications.
Conclusion:
A deeper understanding of the brain metastasis precursors should help to stratify high-risk patients and improve preventive therapeutic strategies. Although all these preclinical evidences have yet to be translated into patients, they provide considerable hope to benefit patients with brain metastases in the future.
