Clinical application of circulating tumor cell in advanced gastric cancer

Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the common malignant tumors globally. Its characteristics of high morbidity and mortality, high metastasis, low early diagnosis rate, low radical resection rate and low 5-year survival rate have seriously affected clinical treatment and patients’ prognosis. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cancer cells that leave a solid tumor lesion and enter the bloodstream. Its diffusion and migration are important reasons for distant metastasis. In some solid tumors, enumeration of CTC has served as surrogate markers for overall survival (OS), progression-free survival (PFS) and chemotherapy effectiveness, and risk factors of relapse. Unfortunately, the study of CTC in GC is not sufficient. In this review, we collected relevant literatures and described the clinical significance of CTC for the patients with GC, especially advanced gastric cancer (AGC), including the biology, detection methods, and clinical applications of CTC, discussed the challenges and the future prospects in this field.