Detection of circulating tumor cells by CTCchip

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are released from primary tumors to the circulations and metastatic site. CTCs have attracted attention as cause of metastasis and therapeutic predictive marker. Epithelial marker EpCAM and cytokeratins are used to capture these CTCs, however, the existing approaches are hampered by the reasons that CTCs may undergo epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), which is characterized by down-regulation of epithelial markers, including EpCAM and cytokeratins. Therefore, it is needed to find a new EMT-induced CTC marker and methods. In this review, we focused on the EMT-induced CTC detection methods and new CTC detection technologies using micro-fluid devices including CTCchip.