Quantification and phenotyping of circulating tumor cells isolated with the GILUPI CellCollector® technology

CTCs can often be found in the blood of cancer patients. They are a promising surrogate marker for disease progression and response to therapy. CTCs indicate tumor cell extravasation and are prerequisites for formation of metastasis. Detection and characterization of these rare cells could provide a powerful approach for early disease diagnosis as well as disease monitoring. The GILUPI CellCollector^® offers medical personnel at any point-of-care with the unique opportunity to enrich these CTCs in vivo.

Fabbri and colleagues from Cancer Institute IRST of Meldola in Italy presented a method which combines immunofluorescence staining and DNA FISH analysis of in vivo isolated CTCs. They demonstrated the feasibility of this new approach by determination of tumor relevant markers (EpCAM expression and ALK chromosomal translocations) in a lung cancer cell line attached on the medical wire of GILUPI.  This new concept will enhance prognostic value of CTCs and provides an innovative strategy for improving personalized cancer treatments.

 ^[1] Fabbri et al. " Characterization of Tumor Cells Using a Medical Wire for Capturing Circulating Tumor Cells: A 3D Approach Based on Immunofluorescence and DNA FISH.” J Vis Exp. 2017 Dec 21;(130). doi: 10.3791/56936.