Investigate the mechanisms of cancer
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Liquid biopsy

What can circulating tumor cells tell you?

You’re faced with a dilemma: there’s a tumor that’s too difficult to reach by surgical biopsy. How can you check if it’s progressing or responding to an intervention? Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) could give you the answer.

CTCs act as seeds of metastasis when shed into the blood by a tumor. Since CTCs mimic the properties of a tumor they can also serve as biomarkers. These biomarkers can give you vital clues about the specifics of a cancer, such as:

  • Status
  • Origin
  • Progression
  • Response to intervention

So how do you detect and characterize CTCs?

All you need is a blood sample and to follow three key steps to standardize your workflow from preanalytics to analytics.

Multianalyte Liquid biopsy

Workflow

  • CTC Collection and Stabilization
    Collection and stabilization

    CTCs can degrade quickly so how you collect and preserve them will impact the final result.

    Try using our gold-standard blood stabilization tube if you store and transport your samples.

  • CTC Isolation
    CTC isolation

    CTCs are rare so finding them in a high background of normal cells in blood is difficult.

    Try using AdnTestSelect to specifically pull out CTCs using a mix of optimized antibodies.

  • CTC Characterization
    CTC characterization

    CTCs are diverse so specificity and sensitivity are key to profiling them at the molecular level.

    Try using AdnTestDetect to get accurate gene expression profiles.

Latest

Get news, updates and stories
  • Stabilization of CTCs
    Collect and preserve CTCs
    Check out this research poster to learn how to get consistent results from CTCs even after storing blood for 72 hours.
    See the results
  • RNeasy Kit box
    Exclusive offer
    For a limited time only, were giving you the chance to try the new AllPrep DNA/mRNA Nano Kit for free. This kit lets you extract DNA and mRNA from CTCs using one simple workflow.
    Apply for free test kit
  • Blue ribbon for prostate cancer
    Biomarkers in prostate cancer
    Find out how your fellow researchers are using AdnaTest to profile prostate cancer and detect the therapy-resistant marker AR-V7.
    See research papers

Webinars

Watch our most popular CTC webinars to learn more
  • CTCs in multimodal liquid biopsy
    CTCs, cell-free DNA, extracellular vesicles – what can you learn when analyzing all of these together? To answer this, we’ve asked Dr Siegfried Hauch, Director of CTC R&D at QIAGEN, to give a webinar. You’ll learn how to use a single workflow to get the complete genomic and transcriptomic profile of a cancer using only one sample. Ready to see the full picture?
  • CTC challenges and solutions
    Finding and profiling CTCs can be challenging because they are rare and diverse. In this webinar, Dr Siegfried Hauch (Director of CTC R&D at QIAGEN) will introduce the AdnaTest Kit. You’ll learn how to specifically capture CTCs, remove contamination and characterize CTCs at the molecular level using one simple workflow. Ready to get started?
  • Discover the power of CTCs
    Studying CTCs at the molecular level can give vital clues about the biology of a tumor. We’ve asked Constanze Kindler, our liquid biopsy product expert at QIAGEN, to give a talk on the basic biology of CTCs, common challenges and what molecular biology tools are available to study them. Ready to learn more?
  • Meet the AdnaTest
    We’re committed to fighting cancer through our dedicated AdnaTest products. Watch the webinar from Constanza Kindle, our product expert, to learn how to detect the prostate cancer marker AR-V7 and lung cancer splice variants using AdnaTest. Ready to get reliable cancer profiles using only 5 ml of blood?
  • CTCs in multimodal liquid biopsy
  • CTC challenges and solutions
  • Discover the power of CTCs
  • Meet the AdnaTest
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Featured

Dive deeper into CTCs
  • Accelerate Your CirculatingBiomarker Research
    How AdnaTest works
    Learn more about CTCs and how to characterize them with fewer false positives and negatives.
    Flip through the brochure
  • Blue ribbon for prostate cancer
    CTCs in prostate cancer
    Find out how to detect the prostate cancer therapy-resistant slice variant AR-V7 with more than 90% specificity.
    Download flyer
  • Lung cancer research
    CTCs in lung cancer
    Learn how to use multiple gene targets and remove contaminating leukocytes to identify more lung cancer cases.
    Download flyer

Products

Discover featured CTC products
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