Macrophages connection: aggressive nanomechanical phenotypes of circulating tumor cells in prostate cancer

Metastasis is the major cause of cancer patients' death. The process of metastasis starts with intravasation of tumor epithelial cells into a blood stream through which they reach their receptive destinations as circulating tumor cells (CTCs) to seed new cancer sites. Since CTCs are poorly prepared to survive the shear stress of blood flow, they develop a range of strategies to survive the hostile environment. We show that CTCs isolated from the blood of prostate cancer patients display specific nanomechanical phenotypes characteristic of cell endurance and invasiveness and patient sensitivity to androgen deprivation therapy.