Blood has been widely used as a minimal invasive biopsy for disease diagnosis. Enumeration of the rare circulating tumor cells (CTC) is currently a FDA-approved method for prognosis evaluation in metastatic breast, colorectal and prostate cancer. To study the rare CTC, we propose to enumerate CTCs and generate a true, unbiased, total RNA transcriptome from single-CTCs with microfluidic devices. The study will facilitate a large scale CTC molecular characterization for treatment evaluation in breast cancer patients.

NIH Funding Acknowledgment: Important - All publications resulting from the utilization of SC CTSI resources are required to credit the SC CTSI grant by including the NIH funding acknowledgment and must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy.