Inertial focusing of circulating tumor cells in whole blood at high flow rates using the microfluidic CTCKey™ device for CTC enrichment.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are extremely rare cells shed from tumors into the blood stream. These cells can provide valuable information about their tumor of origin and direct treatment decisions to improve patient outcomes. Current technologies isolate CTCs from a limited blood volume and often require pre-processing that leads to CTC loss, making it difficult to isolate enough CTCs to perform in-depth tumor analysis.