title: Biosensors for the detection of circulating tumour cells.
abstract: Metastasis is the cause of most cancer deaths. Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are cells released from the primary tumour into the bloodstream that are considered the main promoters of metastasis. Therefore, these cells are targets for understanding tumour biology and improving clinical management of the disease. Several techniques have emerged in recent years to isolate, detect, and characterise CTCs. As CTCs are a rare event, their study requires multidisciplinary considerations of both biological and physical properties. In addition, as isolation of viable cells may give further insights into metastatic development, cell recovery must be done with minimal cell damage. The ideal system for CTCs analysis must include maximum efficiency of detection in real time. In this sense, new approaches used to enrich CTCs from clinical samples have provided an important improvement in cell recovery. However, this progress should be accompanied by more efficient strategies of cell quantification. A range of biosensor platforms are being introduced into the technology for CTCs quantification with promising results. This review provides an update on recent progress in CTCs identification using different approaches based on sensor signaling.
authors.affiliation: Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS), Trav. Choupana s/n 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. clotilde.costa.nogueira@sergas.es.
authors.forename: Clotilde
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.affiliation: Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS), Trav. Choupana s/n 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. miguel.abal.posada@sergas.es.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abal
authors.affiliation: Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS), Trav. Choupana s/n 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Rafael.lopez.lopez@sergas.es.
authors.forename: Rafael
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: López-López
authors.affiliation: Unity of CTCs analysis Translational Medical Oncology, Health Research Institute of Santiago (IDIS), Complexo Hospitalario Universitario de Santiago de Compostela (SERGAS), Trav. Choupana s/n 15706 Santiago de Compostela, Spain. Laura.muinelo.romay@sergas.es.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Muinelo-Romay
mesh_terms: D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D002469:Cell Separation; D006801:Humans; D009360:Neoplastic Cells, Circulating / Q000473:pathology*