Optimization of EGFR high positive cell isolation procedure by design of experiments methodology

Background Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood circulation may play a role in monitoring and even in early detection of metastasis patients. Due to the limited presence of CTCs in blood circulation, viable CTCs isolation technology must supply a very high recovery rate. Methods Here, we implement design of experiments (DOE) methodology in order to optimize the Bio-Ferrography (BF) immunomagnetic isolation (IMI) procedure for the EGFR high positive CTCs application. All consequent DOE phases such as screening design, optimization experiments and validation experiments were used. Results A significant recovery rate of more than 95% was achieved while isolating 100 EGFR high positive CTCs from 1 mL human whole blood. Conclusions The recovery achievement in this research positions BF technology as one of the most efficient IMI technologies, which is ready to be challenged with patients' blood samples.