Abstract

Microfluidic Isolation of Cancer Cells: Overcoming the Liquid Biopsy Status Quo

Silvina Ribeiro-Samy, Researcher, International Iberian Nanotechnology Laboratory (INL)

Cancer is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) shedding form the primary tumor into circulation have the potential of invading other organs and causing metastasis. The study of CTCscan provide non-invasive, continuous and real-time information about the tumor burden, constituting the so-called liquid biopsy. However, these cancer cells are extremely rare making their isolation a very hard task. Current isolation technologies rely on the membrane expression of the EpCAM protein. However, since CTCs are known to undergo Epithelial-to-Mesenchymal Transition, the suitability and overall clinical relevance of EpCAM-based approaches for CTCs detection are questionable. Hence, the study of CTCs has been hindered so far by the limitations of current isolation technologies and their limited availability. We have developed a size-based rare cell capture device that comprises different isolation areas design for specific isolation of CTCs from a blood sample. Results showed good isolation yield while maintaining high purity when isolating cancer cells with distinct phenotypes from whole blood of metastatic colorectal cancer patients, and urine of early bladder cancer patients. Also, the device was able to capture as many or more CTCs compared to the gold standard CELLSEARCH CTC Test.