Preclinical and Clinical Evaluation of Magnetic-Activated Cell Separation Technology for CTC Isolation in Breast Cancer

Circulating tumor cell (CTC) count is an independent prognostic factor in early breast cancer. CTCs can be found in the blood of 20% of patients prior to neoadjuvant therapy. We aimed to assess the suitability of magnetic-activated cell separation (MACS) technology for isolation and cytological characterization of CTCs. In the preclinical part of the study, cell lines were spiked into buffy coat samples derived from healthy donors, and isolated using MACS. Breast cancer cells with preserved cell morphology were successfully isolated. In the clinical part, blood for CTC isolation was drawn from 44 patients with early and locally advanced breast cancer prior to neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Stand…