Single cell gene expression analysis of circulating tumor cells in ovarian cancer reveals CTCs co-expressing stem cell and mesenchymal markers

Aim: Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood of ovarian cancer patients (OCP) are associated with decreased overall survival, whereby CTCs with epithelial-mesenchymal-transition (EMT) or stem-like traits are supposed to be involved in metastatic progression and recurrence. Thus, investigating the transcriptional profiles of CTCs might help to identify therapy resistant tumor cells and to overcome treatment failure. To this end, we established a multi-marker RT-PCR for the molecular characterization of single CTCs, detecting epithelial (EpCAM, Muc1, CK5/7), EMT (N-cad, vim, Snai1/2, CD117, CD146, CD49f) and s…