An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets

Dotse, Eunice; Lim, King H.; Wang, Meijun; Wijanarko, Kevin Julio; Chow, Kwan T.

doi:10.3390/life12020323

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An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets

by

Eunice Dotse

^1,†,

King H. Lim

^1,†,

Meijun Wang

^1,†,

Kevin Julio Wijanarko

^2,3,†

and

Kwan T. Chow

^1,*

¹

Department of Biomedical Sciences, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong 999077, China

²

Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC 3010, Australia

³

Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Royal Children’s Hospital, Parkville, VIC 3052, Australia

^*

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

^†

These authors contributed equally to this work.

Life 2022, 12(2), 323; https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020323

Submission received: 26 January 2022 / Revised: 10 February 2022 / Accepted: 14 February 2022 / Published: 21 February 2022

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disease Prediction and Prevention: From Computational Biology and Artificial Intelligence to Epidemiology and Clinical Sciences)

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Abstract

Immune modulation is a hallmark of cancer. Cancer–immune interaction shapes the course of disease progression at every step of tumorigenesis, including metastasis, of which circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are regarded as an indicator. These CTCs are a heterogeneous population of tumor cells that have disseminated from the tumor into circulation. They have been increasingly studied in recent years due to their importance in diagnosis, prognosis, and monitoring of treatment response. Ample evidence demonstrates that CTCs interact with immune cells in circulation, where they must evade immune surveillance or modulate immune response. The interaction between CTCs and the immune system is emerging as a critical point by which CTCs facilitate metastatic progression. Understanding the complex crosstalk between the two may provide a basis for devising new diagnostic and treatment strategies. In this review, we will discuss the current understanding of CTCs and the complex immune-CTC interactions. We also present novel options in clinical interventions, targeting the immune-CTC interfaces, and provide some suggestions on future research directions.

Keywords: circulating tumor cells (CTCs); metastasis cascade; immune cells; immune system; immunotherapy

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MDPI and ACS Style

Dotse, E.; Lim, K.H.; Wang, M.; Wijanarko, K.J.; Chow, K.T. An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets. Life 2022, 12, 323. https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020323

AMA Style

Dotse E, Lim KH, Wang M, Wijanarko KJ, Chow KT. An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets. Life. 2022; 12(2):323. https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020323

Chicago/Turabian Style

Dotse, Eunice, King H. Lim, Meijun Wang, Kevin Julio Wijanarko, and Kwan T. Chow. 2022. "An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets" Life 12, no. 2: 323. https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020323

APA Style

Dotse, E., Lim, K. H., Wang, M., Wijanarko, K. J., & Chow, K. T. (2022). An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets. Life, 12(2), 323. https://doi.org/10.3390/life12020323

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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An Immunological Perspective of Circulating Tumor Cells as Diagnostic Biomarkers and Therapeutic Targets

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