Simultaneous Cell Isolation Technology Improves Cancer Diagnostic Accuracy

Accurate cancer diagnosis remains a challenge, as liquid biopsy techniques often fail to capture the complexity of tumor biology. Traditional systems for isolating circulating tumor cells (CTCs) vary in efficiency and are limited by size or marker-based restrictions. Now, a new approach has demonstrated the ability to isolate not only tumor cells but also cancer-associated fibroblasts, significantly enhancing diagnostic accuracy and treatment monitoring.

Researchers at the Daegu Gyeongbuk Institute of Science and Technology (DGIST, Daegu, South Korea), along with collaborators, have developed an automated platform known as CTCeptor. Unlike existing FDA-approved systems that rely on markers or size-based methods, this hemocyte extraction–based technology captures tumor cells of different sizes and markers. Importantly, it can also isolate cancer-associated fibroblasts (cCAFs), which are critical players in the tumor microenvironment.

Image: The study highlights the potential of cCAFs as a biomarker for early diagnosis and prognosis (H J Woo et al., Analytical Chemistry (2025). DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.5c02154)

The study compared three FDA-approved automated CTC isolation systems (marker-based, size-based, and hemocyte extraction–based) based on the same blood samples of early-stage breast cancer patients. Their comparison of CTCeptor with CellSearch and Parsortix showed that CTCeptor detected at least 15 times more CTCs than competing technologies and identified cCAFs at a frequency about 10 times higher than tumor cells. The findings, published in Analytical Chemistry, also demonstrated stable recovery rates across breast, lung, and ovarian cancer cell lines, regardless of EpCAM expression or cell size.

By capturing both CTCs and fibroblasts, CTCeptor offers a more comprehensive picture of the tumor microenvironment. This could improve early cancer diagnosis, refine treatment monitoring, and enhance the success rate of drug development. The ability to analyze tumor and microenvironment cells from a single blood sample makes this technology a powerful tool for advancing precision oncology and personalizing treatment strategies.

“Although liquid biopsy technology has focused on obtaining cancer information from blood for the past 25 years, this study holds significance, as it serves as the basis for identifying not only cancer but also key information about the tumor microenvironment,” said DGIST Professor Minseok Kim, lead author of the study. “Our technology can simultaneously analyze tumor cells and microenvironment cells with a single blood sample, which will greatly contribute to increasing the success rate of new drug development and establishing personalized treatment strategies.”

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