Flow Cytometric Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells in Breast Cancer Patients: A Blinded Study

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.