Table 1.

Schematic representation of the main CTC label-dependent isolation techniques.

	CTC Isolation Technique	Method	Tumor Type	Clinical Objective	Major Advantages	Major Disadvantages	Ref.
Label-Dependent Isolation	Magnetic nanoparticles	Antibody conjugation to magnetic nanoparticles selectively linked to specific markers expressed by CTCs	Breast Colorectal Prostate Ovarian	Prognosis Treatment	High capture Very Fast	Expensive Low cell viability Low sensitivity	[27]
	Microfluidic chip	Microfluidic chip with functionalized Surfaces in controlled flow to enhance CTC binding to antibody	Breast Prostate Pancreatic Lung	Diagnosis Prognosis Treatment	Cheap High sensitivity High efficiency High cell variability	Small sample vol. Slow flow rate	[28,29]
	Dual modality	Microfluidic platform (columns) with micromagnetic particles functionalized (EpCAM)	Breast Prostate NSCLC Colorectal	Prognosis Diagnosis	Very high efficiency Very high purity	Expensive Medium sensitivity	[30]

Abbreviations: NSCLC: non-small-cell lung cancer; EpCAM: epithelial cell adhesion molecule.