a novel microchannel-based device to capture and analyze circulating tumor cells (ctcs) of breast cancer.
international journal of oncology
Mar 2014
circulating tumor cells (ctcs) have been shown in many studies as a possible biomarker for metastasis and may be instrumental for the spread of the disease. despite advances in ctc capturing technologies, the low frequency of ctcs in cancer patients and the heterogeneity of the ctcs have limited the wide application of the technology in clinic. in this study, we investigated a novel microfluidic technology that uses a size- and deformability-based capture system to characterize ctcs. this unique platform not only allows flexibility in the selection of antibody markers but also segregates the ctcs in their own chambers, thus, enabling morphological, immunological and genetic characterization of each ctc at the single cell level. in this stud