Live imaging and quantification of circulating potentially metastatic tumor cells in early pupal stage of Drosophila melanogaster

A circulating tumor cell (CTC) is a type of cell that is shed from solid tumors, swept away in the bloodstream or lymphatic system, and has the potential to cause tumorigenesis at a secondary location. Here we describe an early pupal leg system to study CTCs in vivo and to compare the CTCs described in this work to those previously studied in vitro. We quantified cellular parameters such as the number, size, and shape of CTCs, and our findings are consistent with previous in vitro studies. Thus, live imaging of CTCs in model organisms can complement and validate previous work in this field and can be an initial step when deciphering how in vivo CTCs behave in humans during metastasis.