Open Access<p>Development and Clinical Prospects of Techniques to Separate Circulating Tumor Cells from Peripheral Blood</p>
Author(s) -
Cheng Tian,
Xiaowu Xu,
Yuke Wang,
Dailong Li,
Haiyan Lu,
Ziwei Yang
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
cancer management and research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.024
H-Index - 40
ISSN - 1179-1322
DOI - 10.2147/cmar.s248380
Subject(s) - circulating tumor cell , liquid biopsy , medicine , telomerase , metastasis , peripheral blood , cancer , cancer research , oncology , pathology , biology , biochemistry , gene
Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTC) is an important liquid biopsy technique that has advanced considerably in recent years. To further advance the development of technology for curing cancer, several CTC technologies have been proposed by various research groups. Despite their potential role in early cancer diagnosis and prognosis, CTC methods are currently used for research purposes only, and very few methods have been accepted for clinical applications because of difficulties, including CTC heterogeneity, CTC separation from the blood, and a lack of thorough clinical validation. Although current CTC technologies have not been truly implemented, they possess high potential as future clinical diagnostic techniques for individualized cancer. Here, we review current developments in CTC separation technology. We also explore new CTC detection methods based on telomerase and nanomaterials, such as in vivo flow cytometry. In addition, we discuss the difficulties that must be overcome before CTC can be applied in clinical settings.