Detection of circulating tumor cells and single cell extraction technology: principle, effect and application prospect

Metastasis and recurrence of cancer are the main causes of death in patients with malignant tumors. Circulating tumor cell (CTC) are cells that shed from the surface of primary tumor tissue and enter into the peripheral blood of patients. The proposal of this concept raises the most exciting part of related academic research and promotes the transformation from traditional tissue biopsy to liquid biopsy. The detection of CTCs from peripheral blood samples has the advantages of simple, high sensitivity and specificity, and real-time monitoring of disease development, which is very important for early detection and treatment of cancer. However, the rarity, heterogeneity, atypical morphology and uncertainty of cell morphology and classification of tumor cells have caused great obstacles to the sorting and research of CTCs. In this paper, we summarized various isolating methods for CTCs in detail and analyzed their advantages and disadvantages, meanwhile, we summarized the extraction techniques of single cells, which lays a foundation for the rapid extraction of single cells and is beneficial to the early detection of cancer, monitoring tumor metastasis and recurrence, carrying out rapid drug evaluation and so on.

Automated summary

The rarity and heterogeneity of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) pose challenges in cancer detection and treatment. Researchers have summarized various isolation methods and single cell extraction techniques to provide an important foundation for addressing CTC-related issues.