Atomic force microscopy for single cell analysis and mechanophenotyping of circulating tumor cells

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are attracting increasing interest in medical sciences as they play a key role to understanding cancer metastasis. The possibility to phenotype CTCs based on their physiological nature, biological responses, and defense mechanisms could open new venues for precision diagnosis, personalized treatments, and preventative measures. In this work, we employed Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) for mechanophenotyping clinical prostate CTCs based on their measured elastic and adhesive properties. We performed the AFM force measurements on different cancer cell lines, namely MCF7 cells (breast cancer), LNCaP and PC3 cells (prostate cancer), and compared the results with clinical CTCs isolated from blood of prostate cancer patients.