AUTHOR=Greene Bryan , Hughes Andrew , King Michael 

TITLE=Circulating Tumor Cells: The Substrate of Personalized Medicine?

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Oncology

VOLUME=2

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/oncology/articles/10.3389/fonc.2012.00069

DOI=10.3389/fonc.2012.00069

ISSN=2234-943X

ABSTRACT=<p>Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are believed to be responsible for the development of metastatic disease. Over the last several years there has been a great interest in understanding the biology of CTCs to understand metastasis, as well as for the development of companion diagnostics to predict patient response to anti-cancer targeted therapies. Understanding CTC biology requires innovative technologies for the isolation of these rare cells. Here we review several methods for the detection, capture, and analysis of CTCs and also provide insight on improvements for CTC capture amenable to cellular therapy applications.</p>