Application of Microfluidics in Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells

Abstract

Tumor metastasis is one of the main causes of cancer incidence and death worldwide. In the process of tumor metastasis, the isolation and analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) plays a crucial role in the early diagnosis and prognosis of cancer patients. Due to the rarity and inherent heterogeneity of CTCs, there is an urgent need for reliable CTCs separation and detection methods in order to obtain valuable information on tumor metastasis and progression from CTCs. Microfluidic technology is increasingly used in various studies of CTCs separation, identification and characterization because of its unique advantages, such as low cost, simple operation, less reagent consumption, miniaturization of the system, rapid detection and accurate control. This paper reviews the research progress of microfluidic technology in CTCs separation and detection in recent years, as well as the potential clinical application of CTCs, looks forward to the application prospect of microfluidic technology in the treatment of tumor metastasis, and briefly discusses the development prospect of microfluidic biosensor.

WITHDRAWN: Upregulated HMGB3 resulting in the poor prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma by activating stromal angiogenesis through immune microenvironment

“…Despite the diagnostic methods and therapeutic strategies of LUAD achieving advanced developments, the LUAD patients still need further clinical improvement to prolong their lifetime [4][5][6][7][8]. The earlier diagnosis often provides preactive treatments, which means greater bene ts are achieved during the whole course of the cancer therapy [9][10][11][12].…”

Molecular Biomarkers in Cancer

“…Microfluidic chips are being developed in combination with other biomarker detection techniques for use in clinical applications (reviewed in Reference [ 119 ]). For example, microfluidic chips have been optimized to detect cancer-associated proteins in oral cancer [ 120 ] or to capture CTCs by using new methods combining cell size and immunoaffinity in prostate cancer [ 93 ].…”

Nanocarrier‐Based Drug Delivery Systems using Microfluidic‐Assisted Techniques

“…[114] The minute sample and reagent consumption, easy operation, physiological environment mimicking real-time monitoring facilities, and accurate fluid flow control with rapid detection have facilitated miniaturized microfluidics as one of the widely used tools in liquid biopsy for CTC detection and isolation, biomarker identification, and clinical implications. [115] Microfluidic techniques use different approaches for the detection of CTCs, including biophysical, biochemical, and immunogenic properties. [115a] Besides, the incorporation of nanocarrier synthesis and delivery capability has further facilitated the utility of microfluidics in clinical prospects for CTC diagnosis and prognosis because microfluidic systems with a nanobiological interface may be able to identify and analyze CTCs with greater specificity and sensitivity.…”

“…[116] The microfluidic-based detection of CTCs using different label-free and label-dependent methods can be found elsewhere by interested readers. [114][115][116] This study in this section is aimed at discussing the applications of nanocarrier-facilitated microfluidic systems for CTC detection and isolation and molecular analyses. For instance, Myung et al developed a NP-incorporated microfluidic device called CapioCyte that was functionalized with aEpCAM, aEGFR, and aHER-2 for sensitive and specific capturing of CTCs.…”