Rare cells. Significant results.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are cancer cells shed from either the primary tumor or its metastases that circulate in the peripheral blood. While metastases are directly responsible for the majority of cancer deaths, CTCs may constitute the seeds for subsequent metastasis. Many studies have shown that the presence of CTCs is of prognostic significance for many different solid tumors.
CTCs comprise a very rare population among red blood cells and leukocytes, presenting a significant challenge for their detection and evaluation. To overcome this challenge, the requirements of high sensitivity combined with high specificity must be met.
ApoCell has developed a revolutionary ApoStreamTM technology that can detect and enrich cancer cells circulating in the blood. This technology permits the antibody-independent isolation of cancer cells from all types of cancer including lung, prostate, melanoma, breast, pancreatic, liver, glioblastoma. The cancer cells extracted by this method are intact and viable allowing for extensive downstream proteomic and genomic analyses to be performed.