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Practical utility of circulating tumour cells as biomarkers in cancer chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer.

Molecular-targeted therapies require the assessment of targets and their related molecules. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are considered a very good source of samples for these purposes. In this study, we applied a practical method for examining CTCs to evaluate the effects of chemotherapy on advanced colorectal cancer (CRC). Even in stage IV CRC, CTCs were detected in only 38.5% (n=5/13) of the cases. However, in cases where CTCs were detected, the change in the number of CTCs compared before and after chemotherapy appeared to be associated with the therapeutic outcome. Changes in the number of CTCs may be a good predictive biomarker. Problems with this method are yet to be resolved, including the detection rate and the stability of the sample source for subsequent molecular analysis.