| Gastric cancer (GC) is a common malignancy worldwide, and its prognosis relies on accurate early diagnosis and dynamic monitoring. Given the high molecular heterogeneity of GC, traditional tissue biopsies are limited by spatial and temporal tumor heterogeneity, making it challenging to comprehensively reflect disease progression. In recent years, advances in detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) have provided new avenues for early screening, disease trajectory tracking, and precision therapy in GC. This review summarizes the clinical applications of CTCs and ctDNA in the early diagnosis, efficacy evaluation, prognosis assessment, recurrence monitoring, and exploration of drug resistance mechanisms in gastric cancer. Furthermore, it discusses the prospects and challenges of combined CTC/ctDNA detection in clinical practice, anticipating its potential as a game-changer in the diagnosis and treatment of GC |
