1. Selection of patients:
A. The disease group includes 300 patients diagnosed with stages 0-4 colorectal cancer not previously treated.
B. The control group includes 450 control subjects who will undergo a colonoscopy procedure.
2. Study stages
Stage I: The laboratory manually analyzes circulating tumor cells to establish a standard detection process for Automated Liquid Biopsy System
Stage II: Comparison analysis between manual and Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform, establishing the procedural and analytical models for the Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform
Stage III: Verification of the feasibility of use of an Automated Liquid Biopsy Platform in the clinical setting.
3. Methods
I. CTC isolation Peripheral blood drawn from subjects will be processed using the CMx platform or the automated liquid biopsy system for detection and capture.
II. Characterization of isolated CTC using Immunofluorescence Staining
III. CRC-related gene expression The serum and circulating tumor cells isolated from the blood will be used to extract RNA, and then be analyzed with the expression of different genes by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (real-time PCR).
