EPCAM and breast carcinoma: Approximately 48.6% of CTCs collected from patients were CK+, which is within 10% of the number found by the Vortex HT chip for non-small cell lung and breast cancer (59.3%).20 The lower number of CK+CTCs compared with EpCAM-based isolation approaches reflects the ability for Vortex technology to collect CTCs that have likely de-differentiated and lost epithelial characteristics.