2016 Volume 34 Issue 2 Pages 95-102
It is revealed that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are clinically significant in 2004 after the existence is firstly reported in 1869. CTCs are thought to be important because they play a role for cancer metastasis and they are expected to be utilized for prognostic prediction, monitoring and judgement of response to treatment, evaluation of drug efficacy, genetic analysis, and personalized medicine. However their extremely rareness poses a barrier to detect and research them. Although CTC detection systems are commercialized, they rely on their size or surface makers. We have developed optical phase-contrast 3-dimensional tomographic imaging flow cytometry which is intended for detecting CTCs among blood cells based on morphological difference inside cells. We report this imaging technology in comparison with X-ray CT.
