The number of tumorspheres cultured from peripheral blood is a predictor for presence of metastasis in patients with breast cancer.

CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that a small fraction of CETCs has proliferative activity. Identifying the CETC subset with cancer stem cell properties may provide more clinically useful prognostic information. Chemotherapy is the most important component in cancer therapy because it frequently reduces the number of tumorspheres. PMID: 27340862 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]
Source: Oncotarget - Category: Cancer & Oncology Tags: Oncotarget Source Type: research