Abstract
Within the last decade, circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have emerged as a promising biomarker for prognostication, treatment monitoring, and detection of markers of treatment resistance, and their isolation can be used as a minimally invasive means of profiling tumors across multiple body sites. However, CTCs represent a minuscule fraction of the total circulating cells in a patient. Therefore, sensitive isolation methods are needed for the detection and downstream analysis of these cells. Herein we describe a sensitive method for melanoma CTC isolation using a multi-marker immunomagnetic bead method. This method has been purposely optimized to detect CTCs in melanoma patients.