Related Experiment Video
Updated: Sep 21, 2025
08:14
Processing of Primary Brain Tumor Tissue for Stem Cell Assays and Flow Sorting
Published on: September 25, 2012
18.3K
Circulating tumor cells in neuroblastoma: Current status and future perspectives
Ran Yang1, Shan Zheng1, Rui Dong1
1Department of Pediatric Surgery, Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Cancer Medicine
|May 28, 2022
Summary
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) offer a non-invasive method for monitoring neuroblastoma treatment response and predicting outcomes. Further research is needed to establish standardized CTC detection methods for clinical use in pediatric cancer.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Oncology
- Cancer Biomarkers
- Liquid Biopsy Techniques
Background:
- Neuroblastoma is a leading cause of pediatric cancer mortality, characterized by poor prognosis and biological diversity.
- Personalized therapeutics and treatment response monitoring are crucial for improving outcomes in neuroblastoma patients.
- Liquid biopsy offers a non-invasive approach for assessing treatment response and predicting prognosis.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the current state of circulating tumor cell (CTC) research in neuroblastoma.
- To highlight the potential of CTCs and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) as biomarkers for neuroblastoma.
- To identify areas for future research in neuroblastoma CTC analysis.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on CTC enrichment and detection methods in neuroblastoma.
- Analysis of the prognostic value of CTC enumeration and mRNA transcript levels.
- Discussion of the potential of CTC genotyping and functional modeling.
Main Results:
- CTC analysis in neuroblastoma is in preliminary stages, requiring further validation.
- CTC enumeration and mRNA levels show potential for prognostic information.
- Genotyping and functional modeling of neuroblastoma CTCs remain largely unexplored.
Conclusions:
- CTCs hold promise as non-invasive biomarkers for neuroblastoma management.
- Large, quality-controlled prospective studies are essential to validate CTC detection methods.
- Integrated analysis of CTCs and ctDNA will be vital for understanding neuroblastoma heterogeneity and evolution during therapy.
