Circulating Tumor Cells Solution

Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are cancer cells that have become separated from a solid tumor site and are circulating in the bloodstream. The level of circulating tumor cells can be measured from a blood specimen in patients with metastatic breast, colon, or prostate cancer. Measuring CTC can provide information for assessing disease status as well as a patient’s prognosis, thereby providing recommendations for each patient’s individual care.1-3 The CTC assay is FDA-cleared for metastatic breast, prostate, and colon cancers. CTC measurements may have utility for clinical trials in a number of areas including service as a surrogate marker for clinical outcome and for additional assays on the CTC specimen (e.g., RT-PCR).