The last five years have seen substantial growth of interest in the development of liquid biopsies – non-invasive blood tests that allow the isolation of circulating tumour cells (CTCs) or circulating cell-free nucleic acids (cfDNA and cfRNA), originating in the primary tumour or multiple cancer sites.
These activities are driving changes in cancer research and drug discovery, as well as in diagnostics and clinical trials. In turn, these are increasing the demand for laboratory methods to isolate and characterise CTCs and circulating cell-free nucleic acids, as scientists and clinicians seek to better understand this growing field.
