Clinical Research Directory

Inclusion Criteria: * Subjects older than 18 years. * Subjects of all genders and ethnicities. * Subjects with the diagnosis of a solid cancer (n=100) of all stages will be included (lung, esophageal, stomach, bile duct/pancreas, colorectal, melanoma, sarcoma). * Ten patients with no present suspicion and no previous history of any cancer (except basal cell cancer of the skin) that undergo surgeries for other benign indications will serve as controls (n=20). * In patients undergoing surgery for cancer the histopathology should preferably be pathologically proven by a previous or novel biopsy. Yet, patients with a high cancer suspicion by radiology and clinical picture that undergo cancer surgery will not be excluded. No additional biopsies, testing or interventions will be performed for the purpose of this study if the medical treatment will not require it. * Subjects must be capable of giving informed consent. Exclusion Criteria: * Pregnant women. * Subjects with the concurrent diagnosis of an active secondary (synchronous) malignancy besides basal cell carcinoma of the skin will be excluded, if there is evidence of disease burden or if the patient is currently being treated with chemotherapy. * Subjects with a hemoglobin of \<8g/dl in the morning of the procedure will be excluded. * In subjects who require intraoperative transfusions of \>4 units of red packed blood cells (RPBCs), no further blood will be drawn for CTC/DTC/cfDNA analysis during surgery or on postoperative day 1. * In patients with coagulation disorders that could lead to significant bleeding (such as hemophilia, significant thrombocytopenia) requiring prophylactic administration of coagulative products, no bone marrow aspiration will be performed.