Research progress on circulating tumor cell detection in brain gliomas

Abstract

Glioma, the most common primary intracranial tumor, has high morbidity and mortality. The detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is an important part of the liquid biopsy of gliomas. CTCs, carrying the genetic and biological information of tumor tissue, provide a new perspective and dimension for the study of tumor metastasis, progression, chemotherapy sensitivity and drug resistance. Cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) circulates through the ventricle and spinal cord cistern, which can better maintain the original information of tumor cells compared with the complicated environments of tissues and plasma. Study on the dynamic changes of CTCs in the CSF of the central nervous system (CNS) is relatively rare. However, the analysis of CTCs in CSF can be used to guide the treatment of gliomas and reveal the pathophysiological and genetic mechanisms of tumor cell metastasis to the CSF. This paper reviews the progress in the research on CTC detection in gliomas.

Keywords

glioma / liquid biopsy / circulating tumor cells (CTCs) / cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) / central nervous system (CNS) / computed tomography (CT) / positron emission computed tomography (PET-CT) / magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) / circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) / extracellular vesicles (EV) / epithelial surface tumor marker (EpCAM) / epithelial mesenchymal transformation (EMT)