Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) Using a Novel Micro-Device

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are metastatic cells that are detached from a tumor and are found in the blood of cancer patients. The presence of CTCs in the blood indicates the metastatic stage of cancer, so the detection of CTCs has been considered as a diagnosis and prognosis marker. The number of CTCs in blood has been found to be related with survival-rate. Also, CTCs have spurred interest for understanding the biology of these cells by performing genetic-level analysis which can be helpful in the development of targeted cancer-therapy or in drug-selection.