Magneto-plasmonic Nanoparticle Platform for Capture, Separation and Enumeration of Rare Cells

Abstract

Detection of disseminated tumor cells or tumor biomarkers in human fluids such as blood, urine, and saliva can provide an accessible tool for cancer detection and therapy monitoring. In particular, accurate quantitation of cancer cells in the bloodstream can help to determine prognosis and monitor the effectiveness of cancer therapy. However, the challenge of detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is their rare occurrence, estimated as one to few CTCs among millions of leukocytes and billions of erythrocytes. Here we address this challenging problem by developing nanoparticle probes with multiple functionalities.