Clinical studies monitoring circulating and disseminated tumor cells in gastrointestinal cancers.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and disseminated tumor cells (DTCs) are responsible for the development of metastatic disease, and may also hold the key to determining tailored therapies of advanced cancer disease. Our review summarizes the prognostic significance of the detection of CTCs and DTCs in various gastrointestinal cancers with an overview of their possible use as prognostic biomarkers. This could be used inthe future as a starting point for new clinical trials focusing on the predictive potential of circulating and disseminated tumor cells.