Research progress on isolation, enrichment and detection of circulating tumor cells

Lots of studies showed that cancer metastasis is the main cause of 90% cancer mortality, and the number of circulating tumor cells(CTC)in body fluids such as peripheral blood and pleural fluid and so forth is closely related to the cancer metastasis and tumor node metastasis(TNM)staging. Therefore, CTC detection plays a pivotal role in preclinical diagnosis, prognosis, efficacy evaluation, and so on.This review summarizes the separation, enrichment and identification techniques for CTC detection based on the physical, dielectric and biological properties of CTC that are different from normal cells, and discusses the current progress and clinical application of CTC detection at home and abroad.In addition, the challenges and future prospect of CTC detection are discussed