Abstract:

There are still many unanswered questions about tumor metastasis through decades of study，one of the most concerned questions is the mechanism of primary tumor metastasis. Conventional concept suggests that metastasis was seeded by single circulating tumor cells from primary tumors，and this concept was generally adopted up to date. But with the improvement of study techniques and equipment，current research demonstrates that seeding requires the collective action of tumor cells traveling together in clusters. Curculating tumor cell clusters serve as a performance of tumor invasion，and strongly associate with tumor metastatic seed and become a study hotspot. This article mainly reviews the molecular biological features of curculating tumor cell clusters and the influence on the metastatic seed.