TABLE 3.

List of combined methods for CTC detection and isolation in melanoma.

Platform	Description	Advantages	Disadvantages	Ref.
CTC-iChip	A microfluidic device that isolates viable, label-free circulating tumor cells by combining size-based sorting with immunomagnetic depletion of white blood cells	Allows the sequential separation of different blood components immunomagnetically labeled Isolation and characterization of CTCs with both epithelial and mesenchymal traits	Low sample purity Expensive Long set-up time	Janjua et al. (2025), Ozkumur et al. (2013)
Spiral microfluidic device	A microfluidic device based on CTC size and physical properties	Isolation of viable CTCs High recovery efficiency	Possible white blood cell contamination Risk of clogging	Khoo et al. (2014), Aya-Bonilla et al. (2017)