Abstract

Circulating Tumor Cells Inform Mechanism of Breast Cancer Metastasis

Min Yu, Assistant Professor, University of Southern California

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are expected to contain metastasis-initiating cells that can shed light on the mechanisms of cancer metastasis. However, due to limited patient-derived material, the metastatic capability of CTCs has yet to be proved. Using our recently established patient-derived CTC lines, we found that different patient CTC lines demonstrated distinct metastatic tissue tropisms in immunodeficient mice and identified associated pathways to specific organs via RNA-seq and ATAC-seq analysis.