Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) represent a surrogate biomarker of hematogenous metastases. In recent years, their detection has gained increasing interest. There is ample evidence regarding the ability to detect CTCs and their prognostic relevance, but their demonstrated predictive value in therapeutic response monitoring is clinically even more meaningful. Many clinical trials in the early and metastatic cancer setting now include CTCs as a monitoring parameter, and numerous translational studies attempting their molecular characterization are under way. There has been great progress in defining the clinical importance of CTCs, and it now seems likely that we may expect wider implementation of CTCs as a diagnostic oncology tool to monitor therapeutic response in real time. Novel technologies may further facilitate molecular characterization of CTCs and development of novel therapeutic targets, possibly leading to more powerful treatment strategies for cancer patients. As the detection and evaluation of CTCs are becoming an increasingly important diagnostic and prognostic tool, the goal of this review is to communicate the knowledge obtained through analysis of primary tumors and CTCs to oncologists and medical specialists in managing patients with cancer.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 12. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 11 August 2025.
All research outputs
#4,135,874
of 34,410,315 outputs
Outputs from Annual Review of Medicine
#302
of 1,150 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#27,213
of 231,185 outputs
Outputs of similar age from Annual Review of Medicine
#5
of 21 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,410,315 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done well and is in the 87th percentile: it's in the top 25% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,150 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.9. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 73% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 231,185 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 88% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 21 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done well, scoring higher than 76% of its contemporaries.
