Sensitive antibody-based CTCs detection from peripheral blood

The detection of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTC) is a purpose in numerous oncology research fields. CTCs are disseminated from the original site from metastatic and primary tumors in the peripheral blood of breast, prostate, lung and colorectal cancer patients. Different characteristics of tumor cells have been applied to define enrichment methods through the differential expression of tumor-specific markers on the surface of the cells. Antibody-based affinity methods can provide the separation of CTCs via the expression of specific antigens on the surface of epithelial tumor cells or hematopoietic cells. Developments in CTC detection methods will improve a wide range of clinical applications, as well as the discovery of biomarkers to predict treatment responses and disease progression. In this mini-review, different CTCs detection approaches base on antibodies for enrichment of circulating tumor cells will be discussed and elucidated the methods for CTCs detection biomarkers on the current knowledge.