The Isolation and Analysis of Circulating Tumor Cells

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Biotechnology
• Genomics

Background:

• Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial indicators of cancer metastasis and disease progression.
• Liquid biopsy offers non-invasive methods for cancer detection and monitoring, with FDA-approved applications in breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers.
• Understanding CTC heterogeneity is vital for personalized cancer treatment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe a novel method for isolating and analyzing CTCs.
• To enable the detection of CTCs with epithelial and mesenchymal features.
• To facilitate the study of genomic alterations within individual CTCs.

Main Methods:

• Utilized the Parsortix system for CTC isolation based on cell size and deformability.
• Employed immunofluorescence staining to identify CTCs with epithelial and mesenchymal markers.
• Developed a repeated fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) technique for multi-genomic region analysis on single CTCs.

Main Results:

• Successfully isolated and characterized CTCs using the described methods.
• Demonstrated the ability to detect CTCs with dual epithelial and mesenchymal phenotypes.
• Enabled the simultaneous analysis of multiple genomic alterations within individual CTCs.

Conclusions:

• The described CTC isolation and analysis approach provides a powerful tool for cancer biomarker studies.
• This method supports cancer detection, prognosis, and therapeutic response monitoring.
• Facilitates in-depth investigation of CTC and cancer heterogeneity.