These results indicate that EpCAM-based immunoisolation is effective to purify CTC from NSCLC patients, the excess of antibody coupled beads are in excess being able to balance the variations in EpCAM expression due to Notch1-related EMT or the presence of poorly differentiated tumour cells (Supplementary Figure S3). The gene discussed is EPCAM; the disease is non-small cell lung carcinoma.