Fig. 2

Single tumor cell isolation by laser capture microdissection (LCM). a Single tumor cells capture map. The green crosses represent the sites of single tumor cells captured along six evenly spaced lines radiating from the center of the tumor section (with neighboring sites located approximately 2 mm apart on the lines). In each sample, 20–24 tumor cells were captured (1 cell/site). b, c, d Example of a single cell being sampled from a 5-μm section using the Arcturus system. A target cell (red arrow) was identified on the microdissection system, dissected with an ultraviolet laser, and collected by adhesion onto an infrared laser melted polymer film. b Whole section before sampling. c Whole section after sampling the single cell. d The sampled single cell