My Kid Cures Cancer

show notes @ https://thesternmethod.com/circulatingtumorcells/ KEY TAKEAWAYS 1. What are CTCs and what do they mean? Cells from a collection of cancer cells, tumor or metastatic deposit Sometime seen on scans but not always Circulate in the blood or lymphatic tissues Can only test for the CTC in blood. Need biopsy to detect in lymphatic tissue The presence of CTCs doesn’t necessarily indicate metastatic cancer CTCs don’t live very long in the blood – persistent CTC is cause for concern Cancer spreads in two ways Metastasize (means “evil spread”) - cells travel via blood vessels Direct invasion - cells invade the tissues and then access lymphatic system or blood stream What to look for in CTC testing Only available for certain cancers – ovarian, pancreatic, colon, lung, breast, prostate Looking for two different populations of CTCs- cytokeratin(CK)-positive and CK-negative ➔  CK is an anchor molecule for cells ➔  CK-negative cells are cells that have down regulated their CK and can leave the