TITLE:
Flow Cytometric Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer Patients: A Blinded Study
AUTHORS:
Dimitrios-Athanasios Ntanovasilis, Panagiotis Apostolou, Ioannis Papasotiriou
KEYWORDS:
CTCs, Breast Cancer, Diagnostics, Flow Cytometry
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Cancer Therapy,
Vol.10 No.8,
August
28,
2019
ABSTRACT: Circulating tumor cells are
cells that detach from the primary tumor site and migrate to the bone marrow or
other tissues where they can initiate a metastatic site. Liquid biopsies are an emerging tool in
the past decades that enables us to detect Circulating Tumor Cells in patients’
blood. Flow cytometry is a powerful tool used in liquid biopsy diagnostics.
This aims to prove the sensitivity and specificity of a flow cytometric panel
for the detection of CTCs in breast cancer patients using healthy individuals’
samples as controls. The study was blinded to the data analyzing researcher. Statistical analysis
followed and results show 86.9% area under the curve which indicates that the
particular method can be very promising for diagnosing breast cancer.