Liquid Biopsy in Cancer
What is “Liquid Biopsy”?
The term Liquid biopsy reflects the collection and analysis of patient samples which are not solid but taken from body fluids, mainly from blood samples. Liquid biopsies are commonly taken in cancer diagnosis and during cancer treatment. In contrast to solid tissue biopsies, liquid biopsies are non-invasive and therefore much easier, more cost-effective, less painful and less risky to collect. Thus, liquid biopsies are ideal to track cancer treatment and also to regularly perform follow-up examinations after therapy.
CTCs in Liquid Biopsy
Liquid biopsies play an essential role in cancer research and oncology. Blood samples in this case are retrieved to extract Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs). CTCs disseminated from the primary tumor are using the blood to travel through the body. Intriguingly, CTCs have the capacity to form metastases at distinct organs. In addition, CTCs are suggested to represent the full tumor heterogeneity and the mutational burden of cancer tumors. Thus, liquid biopsies are becoming an essential tool for diagnosis for many different kinds of cancer such as breast cancer, prostate cancer or lung cancer.
"At Simfo, we are interested in analyzing molecular profile of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), because CTCs reflect the real status of tumor genotypes. CTCs exhibit high heterogeneity within a patient and for this reason we analyze individual CTCs for KRAS, BRAF and EGFR mutations. The MMI CellEctor instrument allows us to precisely select single CTCs from patient samples in order to individually analyze their genomic integrity – an important pre-requisite for our research."
How MMI helps you isolating single CTCs
The MMI CellEctor is a semi-automated microcapillary system to gently isolate single CTCs from processed liquid biopsies for further analysis. During isolation, the cells’ integrity will be maintained to also allow for further cultivation of the CTCs in a primary cell culture. The MMI CellExplorer software supports to identify the CTCs among other blood cells based on (immuno-) fluorescence staining. Learn more about the MMI CellEctor and about the MMI CellExplorer
In order to investigate all aspects of cancer heterogeneity, the MMI CellCut and the MMI CellEctor system can be integrated on one microscopy platform. Click here for further information on customized products