フローサイトメトリーによる末梢血循環腫瘍細胞（CTC）測定： 量から質の評価へ

抄録

During solid tumor development, invasion of tumor cells in peripheral blood occur known as circulating tumor cells (CTC). Although mechanisms of invasive and metastatic behaviors of CTC are not fully understood, CTC becomes an important prognostic marker for cancer patients, which provides information of the therapy and the follow-up. We have challenged the enumeration of CTC by flow cytometry (FCM). In this article, we focus on our recent development of intact CTC enumeration and analysis procedure (iCeap), which enables to enumerate CTC keeping their cellular integrity. The iCeap is designed to perform a flow cytometric CTC enumeration and any downstream analysis after the measurement. Two applications with iCeap are shown; Live/Dead discrimination of CTC and cultivation of spiked cancer cell line. A prospective usefulness of CTC qualification in addition to quantification is discussed.