Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have become a significant focus in cancer research due to their potential for monitoring a patient’s condition through liquid biopsy, a minimally invasive method offering greater accessibility than tissue biopsy. Research on CTCs has explored topics such as enumeration, profiling, and the correlation between CTC count and patient survival. Isolating and enriching CTCs is crucial for analysis because they are extremely rare in the bloodstream (0–10 CTCs/mL). Microfluidics is a promising approach for isolating and analyzing CTCs, offering advantages like continuous sample processing and the integration of various functions into a single chip. This “do-everything-on-a-chip” capability is beneficial for reducing target cell loss. However, because tumor cells from different sites within a tumor show heterogeneous features, profiling CTCs at a single-cell level after isolation is essential for guiding optimal therapy. This post reviews single-CTC analysis using microfluidic devices and discusses the use of CTCs in cancer research compared to other circulating biomarkers like exosomes and cell-free DNA (cfDNA). The commercialization of CTC separation and analysis products is also addressed.
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