过去十年里，液体活检成为个性化医疗中备受关注的有力工具，因为它能够实时监测癌症进化并随访癌症患者。通过微创操作，液体活检通过分析循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）和循环肿瘤衍生物材料（如循环肿瘤DNA（ctDNA）、循环miRNA（cfmiRNAs）和细胞外泡（EVs））提供重要信息。 CTC分析已经对预后、最小残留病（MRD）的检测、治疗选择和癌症患者的监测产生了重要影响。现今许多临床试验均包括液体活检方面的研究。CTC分析现在是几乎所有实体癌症领域中呈指数级增长的领域。基于CTC衍生的细胞系和CTC衍生的外植物（CDx）的功能研究为转移过程提供了重要的见解。本综述的目的是总结CTCs对癌症患者管理的临床意义的最新发现，涵盖过去四年。本综述专注于提供在乳腺癌、前列腺癌和非小细胞肺癌中CTC分析的综合概述。单个CTC分析在了解转移生物学方面的独特潜力，以及这个领域所使用的方法学的质量控制和标准化的重要性也被讨论。

Over the last decade, liquid biopsy has gained much attention as a powerful tool in personalized medicine since it enables monitoring cancer evolution and follow-up of cancer patients in real time. Through minimally invasive procedures, liquid biopsy provides important information through the analysis of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) and circulating tumour-derived material, such as circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), circulating miRNAs (cfmiRNAs) and extracellular vehicles (EVs). CTC analysis has already had an important impact on the prognosis, detection of minimal residual disease (MRD), treatment selection and monitoring of cancer patients. Numerous clinical trials nowadays include a liquid biopsy arm. CTC analysis is now an exponentially expanding field in almost all types of solid cancers. Functional studies, mainly based on CTC-derived cell-lines and CTC-derived explants (CDx), provide important insights into the metastatic process. The purpose of this review is to summarize the latest findings on the clinical significance of CTCs for the management of cancer patients, covering the last four years. This review focuses on providing a comprehensive overview of CTC analysis in breast, prostate and non-small-cell lung cancer. The unique potential of CTC single-cell analysis for understanding metastasis biology, and the importance of quality control and standardization of methodologies used in this field, is also discussed.