Circulating Tumor Cells Exhibit Metastatic Tropism and Reveal Brain Metastasis Drivers

Hematogenous metastasis is initiated by a subset of circulating tumor cells (CTC) shed from primary or metastatic tumors into the blood circulation. Thus, CTCs provide a unique patient biopsy resource to decipher the cellular subpopulations that initiate metastasis and their molecular properties. However, one crucial question is whether CTCs derived and expanded ex vivo from patients recapitulate human metastatic disease in an animal model....