EpCAM Based Capture Detects and Recovers Circulating Tumor Cells From Subtypes of Breast Cancer Except Claudin-low

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) potential utility as a liquid biopsy is of great interest in breast cancer. The goal of this study is to use RNA-seq to show that we can capture CTCs using EpCAM based gating for most of the breast cancer subtypes and detection of breast cancer specific genese are independent of sequencing plateformt. Using an optimized data analysis workflow, we mapped about 25 million sequence reads per sample to the hg 18. Data analysis revealed a significant detction of breast cancer specific genes in CTCs and such signature genes overlap between two sets of data yet provided complementary insights in transcriptome profiling. Overall design: CTCs can be sucessfuly isolated using EpCAm technique and represent an overall signature gene profile of breast cancer tumors.