Isolation of Rare Circulating Tumor Cells Sunitha Nagrath et al. Presentation by: Keara Darragh, Matthew Faw, and Will Plautz
Overview of Metastasis and CTCs Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) Likely the origin of intractable metastatic disease 1 CTC : 10^9 haematologic cells in the blood of cancer patients
CTC chip better than existing methods Gross prognostic tool (high/low risk) Isolates fewer CTCs with very low purity (<1%) and yield Multiple bulk semi- automated preparatory steps First microfluidic device that can successfully isolate viable cells from milliliter volumes of whole blood High sensitivity, selectivity, and yield Single step Circulating Tumor Cell (CTC) Chip Immunomagnetic-bead purification
What is Microfluidics? Deals with small volumes (fL, pL, nL, µL) of fluids Generally processed in a way that moves, mixes, or separates the contents Microfluids act differently Surface tension and low Reynolds number become larger factors in the system Different types of microfluidics Dealing with continuous-flow today
What is Microfluidics? Deals with small volumes (fL, pL, nL, µL) of fluids Generally processed in a way that moves, mixes, or separates the contents Microfluids act differently Surface tension and low Reynolds number become larger factors in the system Different types of microfluidics Dealing with continuous-flow today
What is Microfluidics? Deals with small volumes (fL, pL, nL, µL) of fluids Generally processed in a way that moves, mixes, or separates the contents Microfluids act differently Surface tension and low Reynolds number become larger factors in the system Different types of microfluidics Dealing with continuous-flow today
How Does the Chip Capture Circulating Tumor Cells? 25 mm x 66 mm silicon chip 78,000 microposts epCAM antibodies
CTC Isolating Microfluidic Device 25mm
Staining to Assess Purity Stains are used in order to identify malignant cells from healthy cells. Malignant cells look different Large cellular size Relatively large nuclei Visible nucleoli
Results and Applications Successfully identified CTCs in 115/116 samples Approximately 50% purity CTCs isolated (per ml): NSCLC: 5-1,281 Breast: Monitor cancer treatment response
Results and Applications Successfully identified CTCs in 115/116 samples Approximately 50% purity CTCs isolated (per ml): NSCLC: 5-1,281 Breast: Monitor cancer treatment response
Conclusion First microfluidic device that can successfully process milliliter volumes of whole blood High sensitivity, selectivity, and yield Single step Isolation of viable cells Allows for real time monitoring of cancer progression in a non-invasive manner