Finding cancer cells in blood: Chip-based method for the rapid, sensitive isolation of rare cells in blood
Friday, March 2, 2012 - 09:30
in Health & Medicine
(PhysOrg.com) -- Even in the early stages of cancer, individual cancer cells can be found in the blood. Certain subsets of these circulating tumor cells can cause metastasis. In cases of breast cancer, it is known that these cells can differ from the original tumor cells, which allows them to survive treatment to cause later recurrence. It could thus be quite informative to detect these cells in the blood and examine them more closely. In the journal Angewandte Chemie, researchers at the University of Washington describe a new chip-based method that allows for the detection and isolation of tiny concentrations of such cells in blood.