Figure 1.

Schematic illustration of the integrated microfluidic circulating tumor cells (CTC) isolation platform. Taking lung cancer as an example, 2 mL blood sample was loaded into the device. All red blood cells (RBCs), platelets and most WBCs were filtered, while CTCs and some WBCs of large size were captured. Then CTCs and residual WBCs were washed off the membrane and transferred into the purifying chip, where WBCs would be further removed by CD45 dynabeads. Finally, the supernatant with CTCs and free WBCs was collected for identification and single-cell isolation. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License. It is attributed to Mingxin Xu.