This important book provides up-to-date information on a series of topical issues relating to the approach to minimal residual disease in breast cancer patients. It first explains how the study of minimal residual disease and circulating and disseminated tumor cells (CTCs/DTCs) can assist in the understanding of breast cancer metastasis. A series of chapters then discuss the various technologies available for the detection and characterization of CTCs and DTCs, pinpointing their merits and limitations. Detailed consideration is given to the relevance of CTCs and DTCs, and their detection, to clinical research and practice. The role of other blood-based biomarkers is also addressed, and the closing chapters debate the challenges facing drug and biomarker co-development and the use of CTCs for companion diagnostic development. This book will be of interest and assistance to all who are engaged in the modern management of breast cancer.

Minimal residual disease and circulating tumor cells in breast cancer: Open questions for research

Minimal residual disease and breast cancer metastasis
Self-seeding in cancer
Microenvironments dictating tumor cell dormancy
Technologies for circulating tumor cell (CTC) and disseminated tumor cell (DTC) detection and characterization
Immunomagnetic separation technologies
Microfluidic technologies for the isolation of CTCs
EPISPOT assay: Detection of viable disseminating tumor cells in solid tumor patients
Advances in optical technologies for rare cell detection and characterization
Size-based enrichment technologies for circulating tumor cell (CTC) detection and characterization
Emerging technologies for CTC detection based on depletion of normal cells
Molecular assays for the detection and characterization of CTCs
Multiplex molecular analysis of CTCs
Other blood-based biomarkers
Circulating DNA and next generation sequencing
Circulating microRNAs as non-invasive biomarkers in breast cancer
Circulating endothelial cells and circulating endothelial progenitors
Disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in breast cancer clinical research and practice
Bone marrow DTCs
CTCs in primary breast cancer
CTCs in early breast cancer
CTCs in metastatic breast cancer
HER2-positive DTCs/CTCs in breast cancer
DTCs and CTCs in breast cancer - 5 decades later
Drug and circulating tumor cell co-development
Challenges in drug and biomarker co-development
Challenges and opportunities in the use of CTCs for companion diagnostic development.