Orthotopic mouse models of tumor metastasis expressing fluorescent reporters produce imageable circulating tumor cells.

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are of high importance, since they are potential metastatic precursors and are readily available for prognostic analysis and treatment testing. In this review, we demonstrate the great power that green fluorescent protein (GFP) labeling and orthotopic mouse models of cancer confer to the study of CTCs for isolation and characterization, including metastatic testing in mice and the chick embryo as well as drug response testing in vitro. We also describe a facile method to label patient CTCs ex vivo using a telomerase-expressing GFP-containing adenovirus that will allow the CTC studies described in this review to be translated clinically.