In certain patients who are being treated for cancer, it’s possible for cells to detach from the tumors inside their bodies and begin moving through the bloodstream.
These circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, can help oncologists and other clinicians determine how a disease is progressing, and how effective treatments given to that patient have been.
But getting this information requires capturing CTCs, which is not an easy task, in part because CTCs are so rare. That’s according to Seungpyo Hong, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy. He is also the co-founder of Capio Biosciences, a startup that’s seeking to commercialize a device that he says could help researchers and healthcare workers capture greater numbers of CTCs than they are able to with the one system that has been cleared for clinical use to date.
Hong joined the faculty at UW-Madison from the University of Illinois at Chicago last month. Capio, which gets its name from the Latin word for “capture,” also changed addresses as part of the move. Read the full story here.
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