Table 1.
Advantages and disadvantages of various CTC isolation/detection technologies.
| Device | Method | Sensitivity | Purity | Cell viability | Recovery | Throughput | Sample volume |
Advantages | Limitations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CellSearch [138–144] | Immunomagnetic and fluorescence imaging | High | 0.1–1.4% | Fixed for counting and molecular profiling | 42–85% | ~90 min per detection round | 7.5 mL | High intra- and inter-assay precision; standardized and semi- automated | Unable to detect antigen (−) cancer cells; detection only; expensive facility |
| MagSweeper [145] | Immunomagnetic based | 100% | 51–100% | 94% | ~50% | 120 min per detection round | ~9 mL | Simple; easy to handle; fast | Require additional antibody functionalized magnetic microbeads |
| ISET [146] | Size based | High | N/A | 85–90%, or fixed for counting and molecular profiling; high retrieval efficiency | 80–90% | Filtration for 3 min | 10 mL | Label free; not relying on capture antibodies; simple; fast; satisfies cell lysis, cell | Unable to capture small size cancer cells; poor specificity |
| Cellsievo [147] | ~80% (cancer cell lines) | N/A | 1–2 mL blood per hour | 1 mL | collection, and molecular profiling | ||||
| CTChip [148] | ~80% (cancer cell lines) | N/A | 1 mL blood per 25 min | 2 mL | |||||
| Micropore Chip [18] | Size, elasticity | High | N/A | N/A | ~40–70% | ~0.1 mL per hour | ~0.1–0.2 mL | Not requiring tumor-specific target molecules; label-free | Low throughput. Low specificity |
| Inertial force [149] | Size, weight and shape based | 68–90% (cancer cell lines) [150] | N/A | ~95% [151] | N/A | ~1 million cells per min | N/A | Label free; not relying on capture antibody; simple; fast; inexpensive | Low specificity |
| Dielectrophoresis [152] | Dielectric property based | 1 cancer cell (cancer cell lines) in 1000 mononuclear cells | N/A | 70–90% | 10–92% | Handle 30 million cells within 30 min | 0.25–4.5 mL | Not requiring tumor-specific target molecules; label-free | Strict requirements on cell number, ratio, frequency of electric field, and cell type |
| CTC-Chip [11] | Bioaffinity based | ~65% | ~50% | ~98%, allows for reliable molecular analysis | ~60% | 1–2 mL blood per hour | 0.9–5.1 mL | Satisfies cell lysis, cell collection, molecular profiling; rapid | High cost; unable to capture antigen (−)cancer cells |
| CTC-iChip [153] | N/A | >0.1% for posCTC- iChip | N/A | 77–98% | 10 million cells per sec | 8 mL | May or may not require tumor-specific target molecules | Low purity in the case of negCTC-iChip | |
| Microvortex Chip [154] | 93% | 14% | 95% | 92% | 1–2 mL blood per hour | 4 mL | Satisfies cell lysis, cell collection, molecular profiling; rapid | Unable to detect antigen (−) cancer cells | |
| MicroGEDI Chip [155] | 94% | 62–74% | N/A | 80–100% | 1 mL blood per hour | 1 mL | Satisfy cell lysis, cell collection, molecular profiling; rapid | Unable to detect antigen (−) cancer cells | |
| Micropillar [156] | N/A | N/A | N/A | 71% | 1 mL blood per hour | 1 mL | Satisfies cell lysis, cell collection, molecular profiling; rapid | Unable to detect antigen (−) cancer cells | |
| MicroeDAR cytometer [157] | 100% | 10–50% | N/A | 93% | 3 mL blood per hour | 2 mL | Satisfies cell lysis, cell collection, molecular profiling; rapid | Requires fluorescence labeling; Unable to detect antigen (−) cancer cells | |
| Nanostructured substrates [25,87,92,100] | Bioaffinity based or surface structure based | 80–95%; normally ~90% | N/A | 91–95% | 94–99% | Capture cells within 30 min | 0.1–0.5 mL | With or without antibody for cell isolation; satisfies cell lysis, cell collection, molecular profiling; rapid | The increased sensitivity decreases specificity to a certain degree |