{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T06:07:17Z","timestamp":1784095637716,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":89,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"14","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1784073600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cancers"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Colorectal cancer (CRC), a leading cause of cancer-related mortality worldwide, necessitates improved non-invasive diagnostic and monitoring tools. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), as intact cellular biomarkers in liquid biopsies, offer valuable morphological and genetic information and hold significant clinical potential for early detection, prognosis, therapy monitoring, and drug development. Bio-ferrography is a non-invasive immunomagnetic separation technique that isolates magnetically labeled entities from fluid samples onto a glass substrate via a focused external magnetic field. Methods: This study employs, for the first time, bio-ferrography for isolation, counting, and microscopic characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) expressing the human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) from blood biopsies taken from patients in the hospital. Magnetic beads conjugated with anti-EGFR antibodies were used to selectively capture CTCs from peripheral blood samples of patients with metastatic CRC and other epithelial malignancies. The method enabled both enumeration and microscopic characterization of isolated cells. Results: Preliminary clinical results demonstrate that bio-ferrography achieves a sensitivity of 90% in stage-IV patients and exhibits higher true positive detection rates compared to conventional tumor biomarkers, including carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Conclusions: These findings highlight the potential of bio-ferrography as a robust platform for CTC isolation and analysis.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cancers18142262","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]],"date-time":"2026-07-15T05:39:38Z","timestamp":1784093978000},"page":"2262","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Advancing Liquid Biopsy: First Clinical Demonstration of Bio-Ferrography for Isolation and Microscopic Characterization of EGFR-Positive Circulating Tumor Cells in Metastatic Cancer"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6369-8974","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ofer","family":"Levi","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-1886-4950","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alexander","family":"Shtabsky","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pathology Institute, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel"},{"name":"The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Baruch","family":"Tal","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Assaf","family":"Shapira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shiran","family":"Shapira","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"},{"name":"Integrated Cancer Prevention Center, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0824-7177","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Itai","family":"Benhar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Shmunis School of Biomedicine and Cancer Research, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Nadir","family":"Arber","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"The Sackler School of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"},{"name":"Integrated Cancer Prevention Center, Tel-Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv 6423906, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1184-4706","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Noam","family":"Eliaz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 6997801, Israel"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"e00055","DOI":"10.14309\/ctg.0000000000000055","article-title":"Clinical potential of circulating tumor cells in colorectal cancer: A prospective study","volume":"10","author":"Baek","year":"2019","journal-title":"Clin. 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