In the case of cancer, death is usually not due to the primary tumor itself but due to dissemination. Analysis of the circulating tumor cells (CTCs), i.e., cells responsible for a formation of metastases, should provide information useful for the management of cancer patients, fulfilling the objectives of predictive, preventive, and personalized medicine (PPPM). Despite promising results, the decisions on stage of disease and how to guide the adjuvant treatment still do not include results of CTC assessment. We want to describe two major reasons why the recent diagnostic value of CTC analysis is not sufficient for clinical use. The first reason arises from the biological nature of the tumor itself and the second reason is associated with an interdisciplinary status of CTC diagnostics in the sense that it is neither a theme purely for pathologists nor for haemato-oncologists nor clinical biochemists. We anticipate that there are at least three areas where CTCs can be useful for clinical practice. The first is monitoring of treatment efficacy of cancer patients. The second is a molecular characterization of captured CTCs for targeted treatment, and the third is a cultivation of captured CTCs for drug sensitivity testing. All of these approaches allow researchers recognize and respond to changes of phenotype of cancer cells during disease progression and introduce PPPM into clinical practice.

Department of Biochemistry The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Prague Pilsen Czech Republic

Department of Biology The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Prague Karlovarska 48 301 66 Pilsen Czech Republic ; Biomedical Center The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Prague Pilsen Czech Republic

Department of Internal Medicine 2 The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Prague Pilsen Czech Republic

Department of Surgery The Faculty of Medicine in Pilsen Charles University Prague Pilsen Czech Republic

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Applications of Liquid Biopsies in Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer