Impact of circulating tumor cells in colorectal cancer patients undergoing laparoscopic surgery

Table 1 Comparisons of the two main approaches for detection of circulating tumor cells

Approaches	Cell viability	Sensitivity	Specificity	Disadvantages
Nucleic-acid-based approach (i.e., RT-PCR)	No	High	Low	Cytological analysis is not possible Cells cannot be visualized
Cytometric approach (i.e., immunocytochemistry, immunofluorescence and flow cytometry)	Yes	Low	High	EpCAM dependent

RT-PCR: Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction; EpCAM: Epithelial-cell adhesion molecule.