The epigenetic landscape of circulating tumour cells

Abstract

© 2021 Elsevier B.V. Cancer metastasis is the main reason for the high mortality in patients, contributing to 90% of cancer-related deaths. Biomarkers for early detection and therapeutic monitoring are essential to improve cancer outcomes. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) arise from solid tumours and are capable of metastatic dissemination via the bloodstream or lymphatic system. Thus, CTCs can potentially be developed as a minimally invasive biomarker for early detection and therapeutic monitoring. Despite its clinical potential, research on CTCs remains limited, and this is likely due to their low numbers, short half-life, and the lack of robust methods for their isolation. There is also a need for molecular characterisation of CTCs to identify tumour-specific features, such as epigenetic signatures of metastasis. This review provides an overview of the epigenetic landscape of CTCs. We discuss the role of epigenetic modifications in CTC dissemination,metastatic tumour formation and progression and highlight its clinical implications

RAS ID

32733

Document Type

Journal Article

Date of Publication

2021

Volume

1875

Issue

2

Funding Information

Rutherford discovery fellowship (Royal Society of New Zealand) Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE), New Zealand

School

School of Medical and Health Sciences / Centre for Precision Health

Copyright

subscription content

Publisher

Elsevier

Comments

Vasantharajan, S. S., Eccles, M. R., Rodger, E. J., Pattison, S., McCall, J. L., Gray, E. S., … Chatterjee, A. (2021). The epigenetic landscape of circulating tumour cells. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta (BBA) - Reviews on Cancer, 1875(2), article 188514. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbcan.2021.188514

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1016/j.bbcan.2021.188514