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Medicine and Health Sciences Commons

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Life Sciences

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

2014

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs)

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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences

Recent Advances In The Molecular Characterization Of Circulating Tumor Cells, Lori E. Lowes, Alison L. Allan Mar 2014

Recent Advances In The Molecular Characterization Of Circulating Tumor Cells, Lori E. Lowes, Alison L. Allan

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

Although circulating tumor cells (CTCs) were first observed over a century ago, lack of sensitive methodology precluded detailed study of these cells until recently. However, technological advances have now facilitated the identification, enumeration, and characterization of CTCs using a variety of methods. The majority of evidence supporting the use of CTCs in clinical decision-making has been related to enumeration using the CellSearch((R)) system and correlation with prognosis. Growing evidence also suggests that CTC monitoring can provide an early indication of patient treatment response based on comparison of CTC levels before and after therapy. However, perhaps the greatest potential that CTCs …


Adaptation Of Semiautomated Circulating Tumor Cell (Ctc) Assays For Clinical And Preclinical Research Applications, Lori E. Lowes, Benjamin D. Hedley, Michael Keeney, Alison L. Allan Feb 2014

Adaptation Of Semiautomated Circulating Tumor Cell (Ctc) Assays For Clinical And Preclinical Research Applications, Lori E. Lowes, Benjamin D. Hedley, Michael Keeney, Alison L. Allan

Anatomy and Cell Biology Publications

The majority of cancer-related deaths occur subsequent to the development of metastatic disease. This highly lethal disease stage is associated with the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). These rare cells have been demonstrated to be of clinical significance in metastatic breast, prostate, and colorectal cancers. The current gold standard in clinical CTC detection and enumeration is the FDA-cleared CellSearch system (CSS). This manuscript outlines the standard protocol utilized by this platform as well as two additional adapted protocols that describe the detailed process of user-defined marker optimization for protein characterization of patient CTCs and a comparable protocol for CTC …