Circulating Tumor Cells Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Circulating Tumor Cells Market to expand from USD 7.06 Billion in 2025 to USD 10.94 Billion by 2031 with a CAGR of 7.57%. The Global Circulating Tumor Cells Market is centered on cancer cells that detach from primary tumors and enter the bloodstream, serving as vital biomarkers for metastatic progression and therapeutic monitoring. The market is primarily propelled by the rising global cancer burden and the increasing preference for non-invasive liquid biopsy diagnostics. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 2,041,910 new cancer cases were projected to be diagnosed in the United States in 2025, underscoring the critical need for effective disease management tools. Additionally, the capability to conduct frequent patient assessments without the risks linked to surgical interventions continues to support industry growth.

However, the market faces a substantial hurdle regarding the lack of standardization in cell isolation technologies. The extremely low abundance of these cells in blood samples makes consistent detection and reproducibility difficult across different platforms. This technical complexity demands expensive instrumentation and specialized processing, resulting in high operational costs that restrict widespread clinical adoption and reimbursement within standard healthcare systems.

Market Drivers

Technological advancements in microfluidic and chip-based isolation are transforming the market by resolving the critical bottleneck of low cell abundance in blood samples. These specialized platforms now allow for the label-free capture and harvesting of intact circulating tumor cells, enabling downstream analysis that was previously unachievable with older epithelial marker-dependent methods. The commercial success of these innovations is reflected in the rising adoption of such systems; for instance, according to Alliance News in January 2025, Angle PLC reported that its full-year 2024 revenue rose to £2.9 million, driven by the increased deployment of its Parsortix liquid biopsy system in pharma services and clinical settings. This move toward high-sensitivity enrichment tools permits clinicians to perform longitudinal monitoring of metastatic potential with greater precision, directly improving patient management strategies and fueling market growth.

Simultaneously, the increase in public and private funding for oncology research is accelerating the transition of liquid biopsy technologies from academic labs to routine clinical practice. Governments and major health organizations are investing heavily in large-scale studies to validate CTC biomarkers for early detection and treatment selection, acknowledging the urgent need to tackle the growing cancer burden. This clinical urgency was highlighted by the European Commission, which noted in December 2025 that there were approximately 2.7 million new cancer cases estimated across EU Member States in 2024, creating a massive demand for scalable diagnostic solutions. In direct response, substantial financial grants are being awarded to pioneer new methodologies; notably, according to GenomeWeb in May 2025, Oslo University Hospital received a €13.6 million European Union grant specifically to develop and validate liquid biopsy tests for hereditary cancer syndromes.

Market Challenges

The absence of standardization in cell isolation technologies remains a significant impediment to the growth of the Global Circulating Tumor Cells Market. Since circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present in extremely low abundance within blood samples, detecting them requires complex, highly sensitive instrumentation that often varies in methodology across different manufacturers. This technical inconsistency leads to variable and irreproducible results between laboratories, making it challenging for oncologists to rely on CTCs for critical treatment decisions with the same confidence as established tissue biopsies. Consequently, this variability creates a substantial barrier to regulatory validation and acceptance by the broader medical community.

These technical challenges directly contribute to prohibitive operational costs, further hampering market expansion. The specialized equipment and labor-intensive workflows required to isolate these rare cells drive up the price per test, creating a difficult environment for widespread reimbursement. According to the American Cancer Society, in 2025, an estimated 618,120 cancer deaths were projected to occur in the United States, emphasizing the urgent need for advanced monitoring tools. However, despite this immense clinical burden, healthcare payers and insurance providers remain hesitant to cover expensive, non-standardized CTC assays, thereby limiting their adoption in standard clinical practice and restricting the market’s revenue potential.

Market Trends

The integration of Artificial Intelligence for Automated CTC Detection is fundamentally reshaping the market by overcoming the historical challenge of identifying rare tumor cells amidst billions of blood cells. Advanced machine learning algorithms are now being deployed to analyze high-content images, significantly improving detection sensitivity and reducing the variability associated with manual operator bias. This technological leap allows for the standardization of workflows and higher throughput, directly addressing the scalability issues that have hindered clinical adoption. Validating this progress, according to the Journal of Clinical Oncology in May 2024, a study utilizing automated deep learning models for circulating tumor cell analysis demonstrated a detection accuracy of approximately 96.66%, highlighting the potential of AI to deliver the reliability required for routine diagnostic use.

Concurrently, the industry is witnessing a decisive shift from simple enumeration to molecular phenotyping, moving beyond merely counting cells to characterizing their biological properties for precision medicine. Clinicians and researchers are increasingly focused on analyzing the proteomic and genomic profiles of isolated cells to identify specific therapeutic targets and resistance mechanisms, rather than just assessing metastatic burden. This transition towards deeper biological insight is attracting significant investment to support the development of next-generation characterization tools. For instance, according to RareCyte, Inc. in June 2024, the company successfully completed a $20 million financing round specifically aimed at expanding its precision biology platform, which enables the visual retrieval and molecular profiling of single circulating tumor cells.

Key Players Profiled in the Circulating Tumor Cells Market

• QIAGEN N.V.
• Bio-Techne Corp.
• Precision Medicine Group, LLC
• Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
• Natera, Inc.
• Illumina, Inc.
• Greiner Bio-One International GmbH
• Ikonisys Inc.
• Creative Bioarray
• Abnova Corporation

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Circulating Tumor Cells Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Circulating Tumor Cells Market, by Product:

• Kits & Reagents
• Blood Collection Tubes
• Devices or Systems

Circulating Tumor Cells Market, by Technology:

• CTC Detection & Enrichment Methods
• CTC Direct Detection Methods
• CTC Analysis

Circulating Tumor Cells Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Circulating Tumor Cells Market.

Available Customization

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• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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