Abstract
In the present study, we indicated that the detection of specific subtypes of circulating tumor microemboli (CTM) in post-operative patients could help predict cancer recurrence. By using conventional strategies for detection of non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) circulating tumor cells, is significantly limited due to inherently heterogeneous and dynamic expression of EpCAM, and degradation of cytokeratins during epithelial-tomesenchymal transition. These lead to non-negligible false negative detection of “uncapturable and invisible” single CTCs. To solve the problem, we investigated the clinical significance of CTM subtypes, including single CTCs, multi-CTCs cluster, and WBC-CTCs cluster on SACA chip for studying cancer metastasis and recurrence in patients with lung adenocarcinoma.