Authors:
Jorge Nieva, Marco Wendel, Madelyn S Luttgen, Dena Marrinucci, Lyudmila Bazhenova, Anand Kolatkar, Roger Santala, Brock Whittenberger, James Burke, Melissa Torrey, Kelly Bethel, and Peter Kuhn
Summary:
Sampling circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from peripheral blood is ideally accomplished using assays that detect high numbers of cells and preserve them for downstream characterization. We sought to evaluate a method using enrichment free fluorescent labeling of CTCs followed by automated digital microscopy in patients with non-small cell lung cancer. Twenty-eight patients with non-small cell lung cancer and hematogenously seeded metastasis were analyzed with multiple blood draws. We detected CTCs in 68% of analyzed samples and found a propensity for increased CTC detection as the disease progressed in individual patients. CTCs were present at a median concentration of 1.6 CTCs ml−1 of analyzed blood in the patient population. Higher numbers of detected CTCs were associated with an unfavorable prognosis.
Source:
Physical Biology; Vol. 9, No. 1 (2012)