Figure 3.

Image analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) detected in the blood of breast cancer patients. (a) CTCs detected in blood samples from the same or different breast cancer patients vary in size, shape and cytokeratin (CK) expression level. (b) 'Boxed' cells with confirmed CTCs; to be classified as a CTC, the cell should be positive for CK, negative for CD45, positive for nuclear staining and be identified as intact cell through the brightfield image. (c) Brightfield (BF) imaging shows cell morphology, allowing discrimination between cells and artifacts like dye debris or cell fragments. (d) Composite image of a CTC cluster from a metastatic breast cancer patient. (e) Ariol^®'s output report format including image information and such data as the signal level intensity, cell location in 'England Finder' (EF) coordinates and selected case information. (f) Image output report from the CellSearch™ system.