Circulating Tumor Cells: A Reliable Biomarker for Prostate Cancer Treatment Assessment?

BACKGROUND: Prostate cancer is a common malignancy with highly molecular heterogeneity responsible for a wide spectrum of clinical behavior. To date, several treatment options are available, whose selection is currently based mainly on clinical criteria. Given the weakness of conventional imaging and PSA assay, the identification of a prognostic and predictive biomarker for choosing the appropriate treatment and monitoring its efficacy is a very topical issue in prostate cancer management. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have substantial promise for early tumor diagnosis, disease recurrence and metastatic spread monitoring as well as for biological tumor characterization, thus representing a reliable translational real-time biomarkers of prostate cancer.

CONCLUSION: This paper summarized the main data available about CTCs detection, their prognostic value, and their potential predictive role for metastatic prostate cancer patients management.