DTCFinder: a bench-to-bits toolkit for label-free, whole-spectrum analysis of disseminated and circulating tumor cells in liquid biopsies

Abstract

Disseminated (DTCs) and circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are rare but pivotal in understanding cancer metastasis and advancing liquid biopsy-based diagnostics. Traditional detection approaches, hindered by their dependency on epithelial markers or morphological features, impair the accurate identification of varied DTC/CTC phenotypes within liquid biopsies. We describe DTCFinder, a bench-to-bits, label-free method integrating high-throughput single-cell RNA sequencing and machine learning, enabling unbiased detection, in-depth molecular characterization, and precise tissue-of-origin tracing of DTCs/CTCs across various types of liquid biopsies, even with ultra-scarce DTC/CTC presence in peripheral blood and low sequencing depth. DTCFinder offers a robust and versatile toolkit for liquid biopsy-based cancer diagnostics, enhancing our understanding of cancer metastasis.