Blood-based biopsies-clinical utility beyond circulating tumor cells.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) cells, as well as a number of circulating cancer stromal cells (CStCs) are known to shed into the blood of cancer patients. Individually, and together, these cells provide biological and clinical information about the cancers. Filtration is a method used to isolate all of these cells, while eliminating red and white blood cells from whole peripheral blood.

Filtration and Analysis of Circulating Cancer Associated Cells from the Blood of Cancer Patients.

Filtration is one of the most efficient methods to remove red and white blood cells from whole blood, while retaining larger cells on the surface of the filter. Precision pore microfilters, such as the CellSieve™ microfilters, are ideally suited for this purpose, as they are strong, with uniform pore size and distribution, and have low fluorescent background required for microscopic image analysis. We present a system to implement the filtration of whole blood in combination with CellSieve™ microfilters that is simple and straightforward to use.