Researchers immunoengineer nanobead system for circulating tumor cell detection
A team of researchers has immunoengineered a nanobead system for the isolation and detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs). A report on their research has been released on the
Cancerous tissues shed free tumor cells – known as CTCs – into the peripheral blood. CTCs are associated with 90% of cancer-related deaths. They are therefore considered prognostic biomarkers in tumor metastasis and cancer diagnostics. However, the lack of an efficient commercial test has limited this approach. An interdisciplinary team – from Harvard University in the U.S. and the Second Military University and Tongji University in China – has designed and obtained a method to detect these CTCs from the buffer or peripheral blood.