An Integrated Microfluidic Chip and Its Clinical Application for Circulating Tumor Cell Isolation and Single-Cell...

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Biotechnology
• Genomics

Background:

• Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are crucial for noninvasive tumor management and research.
• Understanding tumor heterogeneity through single-cell CTC analysis can improve cancer diagnosis and treatment.
• Current methods primarily focus on CTC enumeration and detection, with limited single-cell studies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To establish an integrated microfluidic platform for single-cell isolation and analysis of CTCs.
• To validate the platform using lung cancer cell lines.
• To apply the platform for detecting and analyzing single CTCs in cancer patients' blood samples.

Main Methods:

• Development and validation of an integrated microfluidic platform.
• Isolation and detection of single CTCs from peripheral blood of 20 cancer patients.
• Single-cell whole-exome DNA sequencing of CTCs from an early-stage lung cancer patient.

Main Results:

• The microfluidic platform successfully isolated and analyzed single CTCs.
• CTCs were detected in 75% (15 out of 20) of cancer patient blood samples.
• Single-cell sequencing revealed detailed genetic variations, including six new gene mutations common to both CTCs and surgical specimens.

Conclusions:

• The developed microfluidic platform is an effective tool for single CTC isolation and analysis.
• This approach facilitates early cancer diagnosis and provides insights into tumor genetics at a single-cell level.
• The study highlights the potential of single-cell CTC analysis for personalized cancer medicine.