Development and clinical prospects of techniques to separate circulating tumor cells from peripheral blood

Abstract

Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTC) is an important liquid biopsy technique that has advanced considerably in recent years. To further advance the development of technology for curing cancer, several CTC technologies have been proposed by various research groups. Despite their potential role in early cancer diagnosis and prognosis, CTC methods are currently used for research purposes only, and very few methods have been accepted for clinical applications because of difficulties, including CTC heterogeneity, CTC separation from the blood, and a lack of thorough clinical validation. Although current CTC technologies have not been truly implemented, they possess high potential as future clinical diagnostic techniques for individualized cancer. Here, we review current developments in CTC separation technology. We also explore new CTC detection methods based on telomerase and nanomaterials, such as in vivo flow cytometry. In addition, we discuss the difficulties that must be overcome before CTC can be applied in clinical settings.