Using single-cell sequencing technology to detect circulating tumor cells in solid tumors

• Published in: Molecular cancer Vol. 20; no. 1; pp. 104 - 17
• Main Authors: Xu, Jiasheng, Liao, Kaili, Yang, Xi, Wu, Chengfeng, Wu, Wei
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England BioMed Central Ltd 19.08.2021; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Adjuvant treatment; Antibodies; Biomarkers, Tumor; Biopsy; Breast cancer; Cancer; Circulating tumor cells; Colorectal cancer; Development and progression; Epigenetic inheritance; Epigenetics; FDA approval; Flow Cytometry; Gene expression; Gene Expression Profiling; Genetic engineering; Genetic Heterogeneity; Genomes; Genomics; Genomics - methods; High-Throughput Nucleotide Sequencing - methods; Humans; Liver; Lung cancer; Lymph nodes; Lymphatic system; Melanoma; Metastases; Metastasis; Mutation; Neoplasms - diagnosis; Neoplasms - genetics; Neoplasms - therapy; Neoplastic Cells, Circulating - metabolism; Neoplastic Stem Cells - metabolism; Next-generation sequencing; Peripheral blood; Prostate cancer; Research progress; Review; Sequence analysis; Single-Cell Analysis - methods; Single-cell sequencing; Skin cancer; Solid tumors; Stem cells; Transcriptome; Transcriptomes; Tumor cells; Tumor heterogeneity; Tumors; Tumor heterogeneity; Single-cell sequencing; Research progress; Circulating tumor cells
• DOI: 10.1186/s12943-021-01392-w
• ISSN: 1476-4598

Circulating tumor cells are tumor cells with high vitality and high metastatic potential that invade and shed into the peripheral blood from primary solid tumors or metastatic foci. Due to the heterogeneity of tumors, it is difficult for high-throughput sequencing analysis of tumor tissues to find the genomic characteristics of low-abundance tumor stem cells. Single-cell sequencing of circulating tumor cells avoids interference from tumor heterogeneity by comparing the differences between single-cell genomes, transcriptomes, and epigenetic groups among circulating tumor cells, primary and metastatic tumors, and metastatic lymph nodes in patients' peripheral blood, providing a new perspective for understanding the biological process of tumors. This article describes the identification, biological characteristics, and single-cell genome-wide variation in circulating tumor cells and summarizes the application of single-cell sequencing technology to tumor typing, metastasis analysis, progression detection, and adjuvant therapy.