# Disseminated tumour cells (DTCs)

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/disseminated-tumor-cells/  
OnCo record `disseminated-tumor-cells` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

Single cancer cells that have already spread to distant organs, often found in bone marrow years before any metastasis appears.

## Summary

Disseminated tumour cells (DTCs) are single cancer cells that have already spread to distant organs, often found in bone marrow years before any metastasis appears. They are detected by bone marrow aspiration with cytokeratin staining in a substantial minority of early breast cancer patients and are prognostic for relapse, yet most are dormant and non-proliferating, as described in The metastatic cascade and Tumour dormancy pathways. DTCs are the biological substrate of Minimal / molecular residual disease (MRD), measured by MRD / molecular residual disease testing, and of Late recurrence. Readers meet the term in the hallmark Activating invasion and metastasis, the Metastasis and Recurrence and relapse entries, and the idea What decides which disseminated cells ever colonise?

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-08
- Also known as: disseminated tumour cell

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micrometastasis
- Braun et al., A pooled analysis of bone marrow micrometastasis in breast cancer (NEJM 2005): https://doi.org/10.1056/NEJMoa050434

## Connected records

- technologies: [MRD / molecular residual disease testing](https://onco.cc/technologies/mrd-testing/)
- pathways: [Intravasation & circulating tumour cells](https://onco.cc/pathways/intravasation-ctc-survival/), [The metastatic cascade](https://onco.cc/pathways/metastatic-cascade/), [The pre-metastatic niche](https://onco.cc/pathways/pre-metastatic-niche/), [Tumour dormancy](https://onco.cc/pathways/tumor-dormancy/)
- terms: [Hallmark: activating invasion and metastasis](https://onco.cc/terms/activating-invasion-metastasis/), [Late recurrence](https://onco.cc/terms/late-recurrence/), [Metastasis](https://onco.cc/terms/metastasis/), [Minimal / molecular residual disease (MRD)](https://onco.cc/terms/mrd/), [Recurrence and relapse](https://onco.cc/terms/relapse-recurrence/), [Seed and soil hypothesis of metastasis (Paget)](https://onco.cc/terms/seed-and-soil-hypothesis/)
- key papers: [A pooled analysis of bone marrow micrometastasis in breast cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-braun-n-engl-j-med/)
- ideas: [What decides which disseminated cells ever colonise?](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-dtc-colonisation-determinants/)

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