Circulating tumor cells (CTC) are cells that have detached from primary tumors and circulate in the bloodstream where they are carried to other organs, leading to seeding of new tumors and metastases. CTC have been known to exist in the bloodstream for more than a century. With recent progress in the area of micro- and nanotechnology, it has been possible to adopt new approaches in CTC research. Microscale and nanoscale studies can throw some light on the time course of CTC appearance in blood and CTC overexpression profiles for cancer-related markers and galvanize the development of drugs to block metastases. CTC counts could serve as endpoint biomarkers and as prognostic markers for patients with a metastatic disease. This paper reviews some of the recent researches on using micro- and nanotechnology to capture and profile CTC.

中文翻译：

---

捕获循环肿瘤细胞的微米和纳米技术方法。

循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）是已经脱离原发肿瘤并在血液中循环并携带到其他器官的细胞，从而导致新肿瘤和转移的播种。众所周知，四氯化碳存在于血液中已有一个多世纪的历史了。随着微纳米技术领域的最新进展，在CTC研究中可以采用新的方法。微观和纳米级研究可以阐明血液中CTC出现的时间进程以及癌症相关标志物的CTC过表达情况，并刺激药物研发来阻止转移。CTC计数可以作为转移性疾病患者的终点生物标志物和预后标志物。本文回顾了有关使用微米和纳米技术捕获和分析CTC的最新研究。