Summary: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have rapidly developed as important cancer biomarkers after their enumeration proved to be prognostic in metastatic breast, colorectal and prostate cancer, and their rise or decline after the first cycle of therapy showed to predict therapy response. Besides mere counting, CTCs can be isolated and subsequently analyzed using various molecular applications, including miRNA expression analysis. Recently, miRNA expression profiling in primary tumors has yielded promising results. However, establishing miRNA expression in the circulation likely has advantages over determination in primary tumor tissue, further augmenting the potential applications of miRNA determination in oncology. Additionally to CTC-associated miRNAs, free circulating miRNAs have been identified in whole blood, plasma and serum. Since determination of miRNAs in peripheral blood, either cell-free or CTC-associated, is expected to become important in oncology, especially when linked to and interpreted together with epithelial CTCs, this review focuses on measuring miRNAs in the circulation of cancer patients.

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hdl.handle.net/1765/22635
Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Mostert, B., Sieuwerts, A., Martens, J., & Sleijfer, S. (2011). Diagnostic applications of cell-free and circulating tumor cell-associated miRNAs in cancer patients. Expert Review of Molecular Diagnostics, 1–33. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/22635