As an invisible killer of human beings, “cancer” is usually detected too late because most of them have no obvious symptoms before the onset of the disease, and it has been ranked first among the top 10 causes of death in Malaysia for 39 consecutive years, which has made many people frightened. However, with the rapid development of medical technology, in addition to proper treatment to reduce the mortality rate after cancer, emerging technologies can also be used to detect the spread of cancer cells, which is an important tool for many cancer cells to monitor their health in the future. Help you understand the detection method, use and applicable objects, and fight the invasion of cancer cells in real time.
What is CTC? Understanding Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs)
The full name of CTC is Circulating Tumor Cell, Chinese for “circulating tumor cells”, which refers to the tumor cells shed from the cancer patient’s tumor into the blood, which will reach various parts of the body with blood circulation, such as liver, bone marrow, lung and other organs, these malignant tumor cells are like seeds, penetrate the blood vessel wall and take root in other organs of the body, and proliferate more new tumors, forming the so-called “cancer cell metastasis”. Therefore, once the number of CTCs detected in the body increases, it means that there may be cancer cells in the body that have proliferated or recurred, and further tests or treatments are needed to stop the spread of cancer cells.
How is cancer recurrence detected? Understand the principle, purpose and object of CTC testing process
Since CTCs (circulating tumor cells) are found in the blood, they can be tested by simply drawing blood. However, red blood cells and white blood cells appear together in the blood, so it is necessary to go through sophisticated testing technology to detect CTC hidden in a large number of blood cells, and the common methods are to use cell size screening and “immunofluorescence staining” technology to label circulating tumor cells to identify CTC. Because of the precision of the detection method, it is recommended to use laboratories with reliable testing quality such as LDTs certification, and the “EVA Select tumor doppelganger anti-cancer drug test” method has also been developed recently, as long as a simple blood draw, the circulating tumor cells in the blood can be isolated and cultured into a personalized in vitro tumor clone of the patient, and the drug test can be carried out directly against the cancer cells to obtain more accurate medication recommendations.
