Table 1 Characteristics of some CTC detection methods
From: Nanotechnology for the detection and kill of circulating tumor cells
Method | Cell viability | Detection level | Advantage | Disadvantage | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CellSearch System | No | Median number of isolated CTCs, 5 CTCs per 7.5 ml of blood | Adequate clinical evidence, automated enumeration, commercial availability | Further analysis limited, false-positive and false-negative, applications need to be expanded | |
CellSearch Profile | No | Median number of isolated CTCs, about 140 CTCs per 7.5 ml of blood | Fewer processing steps, better sensitivity, reproducibility | Manual enumeration, false-positive and false-negative, limited reports | [32] |
AdnaSystem | No | Sensitivity, 2 CTCs per 5 ml of blood | Detection of occult or very low number of CTCs, assessment of genomic markers | False-positive and false-negative, the sensitivity not improved compared to CellSearch System | |
Immunomagnetic nanocarrier platform | Yes | Capture rate, 78% to 93% | High capture rate, fewer processing steps, altered biomarkers | Lacks clinical study, limited reports | [20] |
Hybrid nanoparticle | Yes | Capture rate, 87.5% | High capture rate, fewer processing steps | Lacks clinical study, limited reports | [41] |
One-step method | No | Capture rate, about 3/1,000 | Convenient process, low cost | Low capture rate, lacks clinical data, false-negative | [21] |
μ-Nuclear magnetic resonance | No | Capture rate, 99.2% | High sensitivity, short measurement time | Lacks clinical study | |
Aptamer-conjugated gold nanoparticles | No | The limit of detection is 90 cells | Bare eyes sense the color change, the detection is rapid | Unable enumeration, CTC detection is still few | |
CTC microseparator | Yes | Isolates about 90% of CTCs | The step is simple and high throughput, the further can be carried out | Lacks clinical study |