A high-performance gene chip platform for detecting genetic markers from circulating tumor cells

Functional Diagnostic and Therapeutic Nanoconstructs for Efficient Probing of Circulating Tumor Cells

The circulation of tumor cells in peripheral blood is mostly recognized as a prerequisite for cancer progression or systemic invasion, and it correlates with the pivotal hallmark of malignancies known as metastasis. Multiple detection schemes for circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have emerged as the most discerning criteria for monitoring the outcome of anticancer therapy. Therefore, there has been a tremendous increase in the use of robust nanostructured platforms for observation of these mobile tumor cells through various simultaneous diagnosis and treatment regimens developed from conventional techniques. This review seeks to give detailed information about the nature of CTCs as well as techniques for exploiting specific biomarkers to help monitor cancer via detection, capturing, and analysis of unstable tumor cells. We will further discuss nanobased diagnostic interventions and novel platforms which have recently been developed from versatile nanomaterials such as polymer nanocomposites, metal organic frameworks, bioderived nanomaterials and other physically responsive particles with desirable intrinsic and external properties. Herein, we will also include in vivo nanotheranostic platforms which have received a lot of attention because of their enormous clinical potential. In all, this review sums up the general potential of key promising nanoinspired systems as well as other advanced strategies under research and those in clinical use.

Circulating Tumor Cell and Cell-free Circulating Tumor DNA in Lung Cancer

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are tumor cells that are separated from the primary site or metastatic lesion and disseminate in blood circulation. CTCs are considered to be part of the long process of cancer metastasis. As a 'liquid biopsy', CTC molecular examination and investigation of single cancer cells create an important opportunity for providing an understanding of cancer biology and the process of metastasis. In the last decade, we have seen dramatic development in defining the role of CTCs in lung cancer in terms of diagnosis, genomic alteration determination, treatment response and, finally, prognosis prediction. The aims of this review are to understand the basic biology and to review methods of detection of CTCs that apply to the various types of solid tumor. Furthermore, we explored clinical applications, including treatment monitoring to anticipate therapy resistance as well as biomarker analysis, in the context of lung cancer. We also explored the potential use of cell-free circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) in the genomic alteration analysis of lung cancer.