This volume provides the latest research on circulating tumor cells aimed for cancer
researchers scientists and molecular oncologists. It presents the basic concepts behind
circulating tumor cells (CTCs) metastatic biology and potential applications as to how CTCs
can be used in diagnostic biomarkers.CTCs are cells that have detached from the primary tumor
and circulate in the bloodstream. Such cells may become seeds for the growth of additional
tumors. The field of analysis surrounding cancer metastasis has been steadily growing and CTCs
provide effective biomarkers that can be examined in peripheral blood through a minimally
invasive liquid biopsy procedure. CTCs offer several exciting applications not only as markers
of disease progression but also as biomarkers of monitoring response to therapy and companion
diagnostics for novel anticancer drug development. In recent years there has been rapid growth
and worldwide developments on CTCs which span both the basicsciences and biomedical
engineering fields.
