Liquid biopsy for cancer is an exciting new technology that holds a lot of promise in diagnosis, treatment, and management of the disease. Researchers are now developing ways to analyse cfDNA and CTCs to enhance precision oncology and improve patient outcome, as well as provide critical insights into the metastatic process, minimal residual disease and cancer biology.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) disseminate from primary tumors and enter the peripheral bloodstream. Ongoing access to cancer tissue represents one of the most significant challenges in characterizing cancer, and CTCs can alleviate this limitation by providing frequent, minimally-invasive access to cancer tissue via a blood draw.
Circulating free DNA (cfDNA) are degraded DNA fragments released to the blood plasma. cfDNA can be used to describe various forms of DNA freely circulating the bloodstream, including circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA). Elevated levels of cfDNA are observed in cancer, especially in advanced disease, and is thus very useful as a biomarker.
Norgen - Nucleic acid purification kit experts for RNA, DNA and small RNAsNorgen's new cf-DNA/cf-RNA Preservative Tubes are easy-to-use tubes for collection, preservation, storage and transport of whole blood. It preserves cf-DNA and cf-RNA for up to 30 days and can be stored and shipped at room temperature. Compatible with common DNA and RNA purification methods and automation.
Norgen's Plasma/Serum Cell-Free Circulating DNA Purification kits allow for rapid and simple purification of all sizes of circulating DNA from plasma and serum samples.
Norgen's Exosome RNA Isolation Kits constitute an all-in-one system for the concentration and isolation of exosomal RNA from plasma, serum, ascitic fluid, urine and culture media.
BioTek - Imaging and enumeration solutions with Cytation ReadersBioTek's range of imaging plate readers are perfect for downstream validation and imaging of isolated CTCs. Cytation™ 5 Cell Imaging Multi-Mode Reader combines automated digital widefield microscopy with conventional multi-mode microplate reading in a unique, patented design. With Cytation 5, you can capture rich phenotypic cellular information and well-based quantitative data in a single experiment.
Sage Science
More applications are becoming possible thanks to the pairing of next-gen sequencing and cell-free DNA (cfDNA). A major challenge with cfDNA analysis, however, is isolating it from other small DNA fragments (for example, tumor from healthy cell-free DNA, or fetal from maternal DNA). Accurate, automated size selection with the Sage Science Pippin family of instruments addresses this issue by allowing scientists to target just the size range associated with the cfDNA of interest.
Luminex - Amnis Imaging Flow CytometersImaging Flow Cytometry (IFC) is a blend of flow cytometry and microscopy. Using similar fluidics as found in traditional flow cytometry systems, IFC swaps out the traditional PMT detection system with a CCD camera, thus allowing all cells that pass by the interrogation point to be imaged. The result is a system that can image cells across numerous fluorescence and brightfield channels at rates of thousands per second.
This technique is particularly suited to suspension cells where imaging is challenging, and in the study of rare cell populations where large samples are required.
