Method of isolating circulating tumor cells
Value Proposition
Increasing evidence suggests that circulating tumor cells are the primary drivers of the disease progression. Accordingly, circulating tumor cells offer a very promising biomarker to identify cases with a high risk of metastatic progression. However, the current technologies rely on epithelial cell surface markers for capturing the circulating cells. Since epithelial to mesenchymal transition facilitates entry into circulation and dissemination to distance sites, identifying tumor circulating cells that express mesenchymal markers can aid in identifying aggressive cases of solid tumors.
Technology
Researchers at Duke have developed a method for capturing circulating tumor cells based on a mesenchymal phenotype. The performance of the mesenchymal-based capture was evaluated in patients with castration-resistant prostate cancer.
Other Applications
The technology can be used as a potential biomarker predictive of distant metastasis in breast cancer and other solid types of tumors
Advantages
- Improved detection method of circulating tumor cells using epithelial-mesenchymal transition marker
- Detection rate was higher as compared with epithelial marker enrichment assays