Objective To assess the efficacy of a kind of new material lipid magnetic particle for isolation and detection of lung cancer circulating tumor cells (CTCs). Methods Immune lipid magnetic particles were prepared with reverse evaporation method and they were assembled into kits with EpCAM and EGFR antibody respectively. Their efficacy were evaluated by detecting A549 cells in group A (A549 cells mixed in phosphated buffer solution) and group B (A549 cells mixed in blood from healthy volunteers). Lung cancer CTCs of hospitalized patients were also detected with both immune magnetic particals. Then the detecting efficacy was compared between EpCAM immune lipid magnetic particles and the conventional CellsearchTM system. Results The immune lipid magnetic particles had high capture efficiency for CTCs isolation and identification. The median of EpCAM immune lipid magnetic particles method in detecting A549 cells in group A was 92%, and EGFR was 90%. The median of EpCAM immune lipid magnetic particles method in detecting A549 cells in group B was 85%, and EGFR was 81%. In 13 patients with lung cancer, CTCs can be detected with both immune lipid magnetic particles methods and both medians were 5; In negative control, the medians of both methods were 0 (P＜0.05). EpCAM immune lipid magnetic particles method can detect more CTCs than conventional CellsearchTM system in 3 lung cancer patients. Conclusions Immune lipid magnetic particles have good efficacy for lung cancer CTCs detection and has promising clinical application value. The EpCAM immune lipid magnetic particles have equal efficiency in detecting lung cancer CTCs with EGFR. There is a trend that EpCAM immune lipid magnetic particles is superior to the conventional CellsearchTM system.