Highly Efficient Isolation of Circulating Tumor Cells Using a Simple Wedge-Shaped Microfluidic Device.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Oncology
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial biomarkers for cancer detection and management.
• Efficient isolation of CTCs from blood is essential for clinical applications.
• Existing methods for CTC isolation can be complex and lack sufficient efficiency.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel, simple wedge-shaped microfluidic device for highly efficient isolation of CTCs.
• To optimize the device's performance for capturing CTCs from various cancer types.
• To assess the clinical feasibility and potential usefulness of the developed platform.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of the wedge-shaped microfluidic device using wet chemical etching and thermal bonding.
• Optimization of CTC capture parameters, including outlet height and flow rate.
• Evaluation of device performance using spiked cancer cell lines and whole blood samples from cancer patients and healthy individuals.

Main Results:

• Optimal CTC capture achieved at an outlet height of 5.5 μm and a flow rate of 200 μL/min.
• Demonstrated high isolation performance with >85% capture efficiency for four cancer cell lines.
• Successfully identified CTCs in patients with liver, breast, lung, and gastric cancers, with low detection in healthy samples (4%).

Conclusions:

• The wedge-shaped microfluidic device offers a simple, efficient, and easily observable method for CTC isolation.
• The platform exhibits clinical feasibility and significant potential for monitoring tumor prognosis and guiding individualized cancer treatment.