Microdevice for Trapping Circulating Tumor Cells for Cancer Diagnostics

Abstract

Cancer metastasis is the main attribute to cancerrelated deaths and early detection is one of the most effective means to treat the disease. Spreading of cancer to distant sites is achieved usually through the circulatory system and the number of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in peripheral blood is strongly associated to cancer development. Thus detecting CTCs in blood samples will be helpful in identifying susceptible subjects. Here, we propose a label-free technique to isolate these cancerous cells from blood. Using cancer cells spiked in blood samples, isolation efficiency of at least 80% were obtained with high isolation purity. The microdevice also preserved the integrity of the isolated cells to allow further studies to be done on these cells. These results showed a potential effective microdevice for CTCs studies and possible clinical application. © International Federation of Medical and Biological Engineering 2009.