Single-Cell Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells: Why Heterogeneity Matters

Page view(s)
36
Checked on Oct 06, 2024
Single-Cell Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells: Why Heterogeneity Matters
Title:
Single-Cell Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells: Why Heterogeneity Matters
Journal Title:
Cancers
Keywords:
Publication Date:
19 October 2019
Citation:
Lim, S.B.; Lim, C.T.; Lim, W.-T. Single-Cell Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells: Why Heterogeneity Matters. Cancers 2019, 11, 1595.
Abstract:
Unlike bulk-cell analysis, single-cell approaches have the advantage of assessing cellular heterogeneity that governs key aspects of tumor biology. Yet, their applications to circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are relatively limited, due mainly to the technical challenges resulting from extreme rarity of CTCs. Nevertheless, recent advances in microfluidics and immunoaffinity enrichment technologies along with sequencing platforms have fueled studies aiming to enrich, isolate, and sequence whole genomes of CTCs with high fidelity across various malignancies. Here, we review recent single-cell CTC (scCTC) sequencing efforts, and the integrated workflows, that have successfully characterized patient-derived CTCs. We examine how these studies uncover DNA alterations occurring at multiple molecular levels ranging from point mutations to chromosomal rearrangements from a single CTC, and discuss their cellular heterogeneity and clinical consequences. Finally, we highlight emerging strategies to address key challenges currently limiting the translation of these findings to clinical practice.
License type:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Funding Info:
This research was funded by the National Medical Research Council (NMRC), NMRC/CSA/040/2012 and NMRC/CSA-INV/0025/2017.
Description:
ISSN:
2072-6694
Files uploaded:

File Size Format Action
cancers-11-01595-v2.pdf 905.36 KB PDF Open