It has been demonstrated that CTCs circulate in blood months and years before the development of metastases, thus their sensitive and diagnostic detection allows diagnosing invasive cancers before the tumor mass becomes detectable by imaging, to set up an early treatment and to avoid recurrence and metastases.
ISET® - Isolation by Size of Tumor cells
Note: The medical device and consumables that allow performing the ISET® test, previously distributed by METAGENEX, are now exclusively produced and distributed by Rarecells Diagnostics.
The Rarecells® System (medical device and consumables) extracts from blood the rare Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) and Circulating Tumor Microemboli (CTM) with an unparalleled sensitivity and without modifying their morphological integrity.
For patients :

Intact CTCs/CTM are further exposed to an in vitro diagnostic examination (eg. cytopathology or other characterization methods such as immuno-labeling, genetic and molecular DNA and RNA analysis).
The Rarecells® System allows performing the ISET® test, the most rapid, safe, easy to use, reliable and efficient test, with the following specifications:
Unbiased isolation of intact of CTCs/CTM from all types of cancer
Isolation of both epithelial and mesenchymal tumor cells
Sensitivity of 1 tumor cell in 10 ml of blood
Preservation of the morphological integrity of CTCs/CTM
Possibility to count CTCs/CTM and to do multiplexing of characterization methods (i.e. multiples analyses performed on the same blood sample)
Possibility to store CTCs/CTM for at least 7 years after capture and to develop a biobank for their further characterization