Circulating tumor cells: biology and clinical significance.

Abstract in brief

• Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cancer cells that break away from the primary tumor, enter the bloodstream, and have a key role in cancer metastasis, with current detection methods focusing on molecular markers but face challenges due to their rarity.
• Advances in detection technologies, including single-cell sequencing, have improved understanding of CTC biology, revealing features like epithelial-mesenchymal transition and stemness that increase their metastatic potential, while highlighting the importance of interactions with the blood microenvironment for metastasis.
• Clinically, CTC analysis is valuable for monitoring treatment response and prognosis, providing insights into metastatic mechanisms and opening new possibilities for targeted cancer therapies.]