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Review
. 2010;1(1-6):3-11.
doi: 10.1007/s12645-010-0007-z. Epub 2010 Oct 19.

Micro- and nanotechnology approaches for capturing circulating tumor cells

Balaji Panchapakesan  1 , Robert Caprara  1 , Vanessa Velasco  1 , James Loomis  1 , Ben King  1 , Peng Xu  1 , Tom Burkhead  2 , Palaniappan Sethu  2 , L Jay Stallons  3 , W Glenn McGregor  3 , Shesh N Rai  4 , Goetz Kloecker  5 , Eric Wickstrom  6
Affiliations
Review

Micro- and nanotechnology approaches for capturing circulating tumor cells

Balaji Panchapakesan et al. Cancer Nanotechnol. 2010.

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are cells that have detached from primary tumors and circulate in the bloodstream where they are carried to other organs, leading to seeding of new tumors and metastases. CTC have been known to exist in the bloodstream for more than a century. With recent progress in the area of micro- and nanotechnology, it has been possible to adopt new approaches in CTC research. Microscale and nanoscale studies can throw some light on the time course of CTC appearance in blood and CTC overexpression profiles for cancer-related markers and galvanize the development of drugs to block metastases. CTC counts could serve as endpoint biomarkers and as prognostic markers for patients with a metastatic disease. This paper reviews some of the recent researches on using micro- and nanotechnology to capture and profile CTC.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Schematic of current approaches for the detection of circulating cancer cells
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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