Research progress on the effects of epithelial-mesenchymal transition circulating tumor cells in the recurrence and metastasis of ovarian cancer / 解放军医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Ovarian cancer has become a common gynecological malignant tumor. Most of the patients have caught middle or late stage (stage 3 or 4) disease at presentation with poor prognosis. In despite of experienced optimal cytoreductive surgery and chemotherapy, most patients would be hard to avoid recurrence and metastasis of neoplasm, and recurrence and metastasis is the major cause of mortality in patients. Studies have indicated that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are related to the recurrence and metastasis of ovarian cancer. Detection of CTCs in the peripheral blood might be helpful to predict prognosis of ovarian cancer, and will be effective indicators for monitoring recurrence and metastasis of ovarian cancer. Thus the detection method of CTCs and its clinical application in ovarian cancer have herewith been briefly summarized in the present paper.