Current Understanding in Cancer Treatment and Monitoring through Identification of Circulating Tumor Cells and Tumor-Derived Extracellular Vesicles 2023

A topical collection in Cells (ISSN 2073-4409).

Viewed by 1600

Editors


E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Medical Cell BioPhysics (MCBP), Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Interests: circulating tumor cells; tumor-derived extracellular vesicles; cancer diagnosis and therapy; liquid biopsy; personalized cancer treatment
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Bioelectric signaling and engineering, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, Enschede, The Netherlands
Interests: (tumor-derived) extracellular vesicles; vesicle-mediated communication; liquid biopsies; label-free analysis of single vesicles; Raman spectroscopy

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
Translational Liver Research, Department of Medical Cell BioPhysics, Technical Medical Centre, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands
Interests: liver diseases; translational research; therapeutic targets; disease modeling; nanotherapeutics; inflammation and fibrosis
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Collection Editor
General, Visceral and Pediatric Surgery, University Hospital and Medical Faculty of the Heinrich Heine University Duesseldorf, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany
Interests: minimal residual disease and early systemic disease in cancer; circulating tumor cells; liquid biopsy; single cell analysis; tumor biology and therapeutic resistance

Topical Collection Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cancer has been one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity for over the past 50 years, second after cardiovascular diseases. Early detection, effective monitoring, and optimal therapy selection are instrumental in bringing cancer from a deadly to a controllable disease. Traditionally, cancer therapy and monitoring have been based on the characteristics of the tumor. More recently, liquid biopsies in blood and molecular diagnostics from other body fluids have been demonstrated to be a non-invasive alternative to effectively detect and monitor cancer through the identification and characterization of cancer biomarkers. Among the multitude of available analytes, this Topical Collection will focus on advancements in classical liquid biopsy analyte circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and will explore the role of tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs) for clinical outcome and treatment response.

CTCs are shed from tumors to the circulation and can extravasate in other tissues, originating more tumors. The molecular analysis of the CTCs, which may include their secretome and gene profiling, may be used to select the optimal therapy. Challenges arise from the low frequency of CTCs in blood, limiting the information that captures the biology of the tumors. Complementary to CTCs, cancer markers such as extracellular vesicles derived from the tumor are utilized as biomarkers in liquid biopsies. Cancer cells release particles enclosed by a phospholipid membrane containing biomolecules that can reflect the nature of the parental cells. Such particles include exosomes, microvesicles, oncosomes, and apoptotic bodies, which, being of tumor origin, can be referred to as tumor-derived extracellular vesicles (tdEVs). Such tdEVs might complement CTCs as cancer biomarkers. Challenges in identifying tdEVs in body fluids derive from their small but broad size range, from 30 nm up to 5 µm in diameter, and their low abundance compared to other sub-micrometer particles, for example, in the blood. In addition to diagnosis, cancer biomarkers in body fluids are also important in monitoring cancer treatment response. Therefore, we believe that it is important to detect and characterize CTCs and tdEVs, and this information can help us to better understand cancer progression, cancer metastasis, and will impact diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

This Topical Collection of Cells will cover:

  • Current methods to detect cancer biomarkers, including CTCs and tdEVs;
  • Molecular characterization of CTCs and tdEVs;
  • Role of CTCs and tdEVs in cancer aggressivity and metastasis;
  • Clinical application/validation of new CTC and tdEV technologies;
  • Correlation of CTCs and tdEVs with clinical outcome;
  • Evaluation of CTCs and tdEVs in monitoring cancer treatment response.

Prof. Dr. Leon Terstappen
Dr. Agustin Enciso-Martinez
Dr. Ruchi Bansal
Prof. Dr. Nikolas H. Stoecklein
Collection Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the collection website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cells is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • circulating tumor cells
  • tumor-derived extracellular vesicles
  • cancer biology
  • cancer diagnosis and therapy
  • liquid biopsy

Published Papers (1 paper)

2024

17 pages, 2689 KiB  
Article
Ezrin Polarization as a Diagnostic Marker for Circulating Tumor Cells in Hepatocellular Carcinoma
by Ibrahim Büdeyri, Olaf Guckelberger, Elsie Oppermann, Dhruvajyoti Roy, Svenja Sliwinski, Felix Becker, Benjamin Struecker, Thomas J. Vogl, Andreas Pascher, Wolf O. Bechstein, Anna Lorentzen, Mathias Heikenwalder and Mazen A. Juratli
Cells 2025, 14(1), 6; https://doi.org/10.3390/cells14010006 - 25 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1119
Abstract
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with no precise method for early detection. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) expressing the dynamic polarity of the cytoskeletal membrane protein, ezrin, have been proposed to [...] Read more.
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common cancer and the third leading cause of cancer-related death worldwide, with no precise method for early detection. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) expressing the dynamic polarity of the cytoskeletal membrane protein, ezrin, have been proposed to play a crucial role in tumor progression and metastasis. This study investigated the diagnostic and prognostic potential of polarized circulating tumor cells (p-CTCs) in HCC patients. CTCs were isolated from the peripheral blood of 20 HCC patients and 18 patients with nonmalignant liver disease (NMLD) via an OncoQuick® kit and immunostained with Ezrin-Alexa Fluor 488®, CD146-PE, and CD45-APC. A fluorescence microscopy was then performed for analysis. The HCC group exhibited significantly higher levels of p-CTCs, with median values of 0.56 p-CTCs/mL, compared to 0.02 p-CTCs/mL (p = 0.03) in the NMLD group. CTCs were detected in 95% of the HCC patients, with a sensitivity of 95% and specificity of 89%. p-CTCs were present in 75% of the HCC patients, with a sensitivity of 75% and a specificity of 94%. Higher p-CTC counts were associated with the significantly longer overall survival in HCC patients (p = 0.05). These findings suggest that p-CTCs could serve as valuable diagnostic and prognostic markers for HCC. The incorporation of p-CTCs into diagnostic strategies could enhance therapeutic decision-making and improve patient outcomes. Full article
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop