Progresses in enrichment, separation and detection in circulating tumor cells

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is the general name of all kinds of tumor cells in peripheral blood.After entering the peripheral blood, most of CTCs suffer from apoptosis or phagocytosis, a few of them can escape and develop into metastases, which increases the risk of death for patients with malignant tumor.Therefore, it is very important to detect CTCs.It can detect CTCs in peripheral blood and monitor the change trend of CTCs type and quantity.It not only contributes to the dynamic monitoring and early diagnosis of the tumor, but also has a very important research value in the evaluation of the prognosis and curative effect and the individualized treatment of the tumor.In this paper, progresses, advantages and disadvantages in enrichment, separation, detection and enrichment combined with detection of CTCs are summarized. Key words: Circulating tumor cells; Enrichment and separation; Detection technology