Advancing techniques and insights in circulating tumor cell (CTC) research
Document Type
Book Chapter
Publication Title
Ex vivo engineering of the tumor microenvironment
First Page
71
Last Page
94
Publisher
Humana Press, Cham / Springer
School
School of Medical and Health Sciences
Funders
National Research Foundation Singapore Mechanobiology Institute
Abstract
Cancer is a major cause of mortality worldwide, with a disease burden estimated to grow over the coming decades. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare cancer cells released from the primary or metastatic tumors and transported though the peripheral circulatory system to their specific secondary locations. The presence of CTCs in the a cancer patient’s blood has been used as a prognostic biomarker, with lower CTC count correlating with greater overall survival [1]. In spite of its clinical potential, the isolation and detection of CTCs has been a challenging task due to its rare presence amongst other blood cells (as low as 1-10 CTCs per billions of blood cells) and variability in terms of both morphological and biochemical markers. Recent developments of microfluidics technology have paved the way for better isolation and characterization of CTCs due to several advantages such as lower sample volume, higher sensitivity and throughput and lesser production cost [2, 3]. In this chapter, various CTC isolation devices are classified under two major categories: microfluidics and conventional macro-scale devices, as illustrated in Fig. 1. We will be discussing both label-free methods and antibody-dependent methods for CTC isolation, and will provide discussion and future perspectives on the advantages and drawbacks of both these techniques on potential clinical applications. Advancement in these technologies for CTCs and associated components, such as exosomes, led to an unraveling of tumor variation, ranging histology, molecular, proteomic and functional heterogeneity, which will be discussed in the subsequent sections.
DOI
10.1007/978-3-319-45397-2_5
Access Rights
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Comments
Khoo, B. L., Chaudhuri, P. K., Lim, C. T., & Warkiani, M. E. (2017). Advancing techniques and insights in circulating tumor cell (CTC) research. In A. R. Aref & D. Barbie (Eds.), Ex Vivo Engineering of the Tumor Microenvironment (pp. 71-94). Humana Press, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-45397-2_5