Objective：In recent years，the individualized therapy of breast cancer，especially in the metastatic stage，has been put into spotlight. Medication efficacy and survival time of metastasis breast cancer are varied due to the spatial and temporal heterogeneity of tumor. Compared with the conventional methods such as tissue biopsy，circulating tumor cell（CTC）-based liquid biopsy could become a potential surrogate in precise medicine as blood is easily accessible in the peripheral vessels without an invasive procedure. A large number of studies have shown the advantages of CTC in early diagnosis，detection of minimal residual or relapsed disease，prediction of prognosis and drug resistance. In this review，we discussed the count and the molecular characteristic of CTC in metastasis breast cancer focused on the prognosis，efficacy evaluation and treatment decision.