Dielectrophoresis in Carcinoma Diagnosis: Recent Developments and Applications

Accurate cancer cell analysis is critical across a wide range of medical fields, including clinical diagnostics, personalized medicine, drug development, and cancer research. The ability to rapidly analyze and characterize cancer cells is key to understanding tumor characteristics, developing targeted therapies, and improving patient outcomes. Microscale electrokinetic (EK) techniques have demonstrated their effectiveness and reliability as powerful tools for cell analysis, including cancerous cells. The applications of dielectrophoresis (DEP), an EK technique, in cancer cell analysis are discussed here with a focus on carcinomas, cancer that develops in epithelial tissue. In this review article, the working mechanism of DEP is first introduced, followed by an in-depth review of recent studies published between 2015 and 2024. The concluding remarks section provides a summary of the key points discussed in this review and offers insights into potential future advancements in DEP-based systems for analyzing cancerous cells.