Comprehensive Single Circulating Tumor Cell Analysis

摘要

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), shed from a primary tumor into the bloodstream, are putative diagnostic/prognostic biomarkers that contain actionable genetic information for tumor diagnosis and treatment. The rarity of CTCs in comparison to other blood components necessitates high-throughput separation technologies for efficient enrichment and elaborate downstream molecular analysis. Genetic data extraction from CTCs currently suffers from a lack of reliable analytical methods capable of handling typically low numbers of CTCs which are harvested from cancer patients, especially early stage patients who have a better chance of cure.