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Comment by dbcooper | Hacker News Reader

Non-invasive circulating cancer cell (CTC) screening from blood samples seems to have the most promise.

(disclaimer: I run a project in this area)

You should get in touch with the folks at Denovo Sciences. They're working on a platform for CTC capture and identification.

http://denovosciences.com/

Agreed, for now. Caveats TBD. In particular issues of access (e.g. astrocytomas, non-metastatic bladder) and identity (what does it mean to be a CTC? A known driver mutation? We know that some tissues are littered with such mutations...)

Which project? CTC screening is fascinating. Could you please point me to some good introductory papers/reading?

I am on vacation right now, without my literature archive in arms reach, but from recent publications you may be interested in the whole-exome single cell sequencing work from Lohr et al.

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v32/n5/abs/nbt.2892.html

There is also an overview editorial in that issue of Nature Biotechnology.

http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v32/n5/full/nbt.2897.html

I remember seeing reviews in Lab Chip and Nat Rev Clinical Oncology recently.

http://pubs.rsc.org/en/Content/ArticleLanding/2014/LC/C3LC50...

http://www.nature.com/nrclinonc/journal/v11/n3/full/nrclinon...

The introduction sections of those papers should give you plenty of references to read. It's a good idea to look into the devices/methods used to enrich CTCs from blood prior to screening; Toner's devices based (in part) on EPCAM expression, and the CellScreen device (size/morphology), in particular.

Thanks!

that is actually one area of applications we are exploring! I'd love to have a chat with you about it.

Sounds great! I will have to try to contact you/Bikanta when I return from vacation.

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