Highly efficient capture of circulating tumor cells with low background signals by using pyramidal microcavity array.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Oncology
• Microfluidics

Background:

• Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial biomarkers for cancer detection and monitoring.
• Existing methods for CTC isolation often face challenges with efficiency, purity, and cost.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a novel microfluidic device for efficient and pure isolation of CTCs from whole blood.
• To assess the device's performance in capturing various tumor cell lines and identifying CTCs in patient samples.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of a microfluidic device with an integrated silicon filter featuring a pyramidal microcavity array (MCA).
• Design of MCAs to selectively enrich tumor cells while allowing normal blood cells to pass.
• Testing capture efficiency using spiked tumor cell lines (MCF-7, SW620, Hela) and evaluating purity by quantifying trapped white blood cells (WBCs).
• Application of the device to analyze blood samples from cancer patients for CTC detection.

Main Results:

• The microfluidic device demonstrated high capture efficiency (approx. 80%) for spiked tumor cells.
• Exceptional purity was achieved, with trapped WBCs below 0.003%.
• The device successfully identified CTCs in 5 out of 6 patient blood samples, with counts ranging from 5-86 CTCs/mL.

Conclusions:

• The developed microfluidic device offers a highly efficient and pure method for enriching tumor cells from blood.
• This label-free technique is versatile and effective for analyzing CTCs with diverse characteristics.
• The disposable device holds significant potential for advancing CTC analysis in clinical and research settings.