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Updated: May 1, 2026
Patient Derived Cell Culture and Isolation of CD133+ Putative Cancer Stem Cells from Melanoma
Published on: March 13, 2013
Isolation and molecular characterization of circulating melanoma cells
Xi Luo1, Devarati Mitra2, Ryan J Sullivan3
1Massachusetts General Hospital Cancer Center, Harvard Medical School, Charlestown, MA 02129, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Bethesda, MD 20815, USA.
None:
Melanoma is an invasive malignancy with a high frequency of blood-borne metastases, but circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have not been readily isolated. We adapted microfluidic CTC capture to a tamoxifen-driven B-RAF/PTEN mouse melanoma model. CTCs were detected in all tumor-bearing mice and rapidly declined after B-RAF inhibitor treatment. CTCs were shed early from localized tumors, and a short course of B-RAF inhibition following surgical resection was sufficient to dramatically suppress distant metastases. The large number of CTCs in melanoma-bearing mice enabled a comparison of RNA-sequencing profiles with matched primary tumors. A mouse melanoma CTC-derived signature correlated with invasiveness and cellular motility in human melanoma. CTCs were detected in smaller numbers in patients with metastatic melanoma and declined with successful B-RAF-targeted therapy. Together, the capture and molecular characterization of CTCs provide insight into the hematogenous spread of melanoma.
