Identification and monitoring of circulating cancer stem cells

Abstract

The present invention comprises a method of detecting circular tumor cells and methods of detecting, evaluating, or staging cancer in a patient, as well as a method of monitoring treatment of cancer in a patient using the claimed method. The method comprises contacting a sample with a ALDH1 binding agent; selecting the cells based on positive or negative ALDH1 staining; contacting the selected cells with a labeled nucleic acid probe, and detecting hybridized cells by fluorescence in situ hybridization; and analyzing a signal produced by the labels on the hybridized cells to detect the CTCs. In other embodiments, the method provides for directed to a method of determining the level of CTCs in a sample having blood cells from a patient by contacting a sample having blood cells from a patient, wherein the sample has not been pre-sorted into ALDH1-positive and ALDH1-negative cells.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.