circulating tumorous cancer cells in anticoagulated whole blood samples fig3 and 4 show recorded images of the morphologic appearance of an acridine orange stained cultured breast cancer cell line mda mb 468 fig3 and an acridine orange stained cultured colon cancer cell line ht 29 fig4 which cultured cancer cell lines were added to respective 100 u03bcl samples of anticoagulated whole blood the spiked blood samples were then analyzed in accordance with this invention the blood sample analyses reliably and reproducibly identified the cultured breast and cultured colon cancer cells in the blood samples the cells were generally seen in the platelet layer near the platelet plasma interface visual analysis of the highlighted cells made in situ in the sample confirmed that they were malignant fig5 is a recorded image of a single rather large acridine orange stained ht 29 colon cancer cell which was isolated in a 100 u03bcl sample of blood that had been doped with a small concentration of cultured ht 29 cancer cells the bright layer to the right of the cancer cell is an interface of the centrifuged platelet layer in the blood sample this image was recorded at 500 u00d7 magnification visual analysis of the highlighted cells made in situ in the sample confirmed that they were malignant fig6 is a view similar to fig5 but showing the isolated ht 29 colon cancer cell as it appears when viewed through the e cadherin cy3 filter set it will be noted that all other cells in the field are not highlighted while the ht 29 colon cancer cell is clearly visible thus confirming the fact that the large cell is an epithelial cell visual analysis of the highlighted cell made in situ in the.