Toward Intraoperative Detection of Disseminated Tumor Cells in Lymph Nodes with Silicon Nanowire Field Effect Transistors

Abstract

Within an hour, as little as one disseminated tumor cell (DTC) per lymph node can be quantitatively detected using an intraoperative biosensing platform based on silicon nanowire field-effect transistors (SiNW FET). It is also demonstrated that the integrated biosensing platform is able to detect the presence of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in the blood of colorectal cancer patients. The presence of DTCs in lymph nodes and CTCs in peripheral blood is highly significant as it is strongly associated with poor patient prognosis. The SiNW FET sensing platform out-performed in both sensitivity and rapidity not only the current standard method based on pathological examination of tissue sections but also the emerging clinical gold standard based on molecular assays. The possibility to achieve accurate and highly sensitive analysis of the presence of DTCs in the lymphatics within the surgery time frame has the potential to spare cancer patients from an unnecessary secondary surgery, leading to reduced patient morbidity, improving their psychological wellbeing and reducing time spent in hospital. This study demonstrates the potential of nanoscale field-effect technology in clinical cancer diagnostics.

Hybrid Silicon Nanowire Devices and Their Functional Diversity

“…Some examples include APTES with amino groups, [55] 3-(triethoxysilyl)propylsuccinic anhydride (TESPSA) with succinic anhydride functionality, [155] or octadecyldimethylmethoxysilane (ODMS) with no reactive groups for passivation [35] (Figure 6b). Tran et al [157] developed an intraoperative biosensing platform with electron beam lithography defined nanowires and immobilized anti-cytokeratin Adv. [155] When bottom-up SiNWs are used, these can be processed in solution to avoid functionalizing also the silicon wafer where they will be printed.…”

“…If the strand is standing up, the charges of the opposite end will be far from the surface, poorly contributing to the signal. [157] Copyright 2016, ACS Publications, https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acsnano.5b07136, further permissions related to this figure should be directed to ACS. Dorvel et al [111] electrostatically immobilized a poly-l-lysine (PLL) layer over the negatively charged surface of the high-k hafnium oxide used as the top oxide layer (Figure 8a).…”

The lab-on-PCB approach: tackling the μTAS commercial upscaling bottleneck

“…); 4. chip bonding (anodic bonding, adhesive bonding, fusion bonding, etc. ); Sophisticated biosensors and μTAS components [12][13][14][15][16] have been developed over the past decades in silicon 17 ( Fig. 2A), innovatively combining such techniques and achieving impressive performance.…”

High performance indium oxide nanoribbon FETs: mitigating devices signal variation from batch fabrication

“…Nanostructured FET based sensors have attracted extensive attention in chemical and biological sensing because of their direct signal transduction, exquisite sensitivity, and point-ofcare integration capability. [1][2][3][4] Preferred materials for nano FET sensors construction include silicon (Si), [5][6][7][8] oxide semiconductors, [9][10][11][12] III-V materials, [13][14][15] and carbon based materials. [16][17][18] While Si-based nanoFETs (e.g.…”

“…[16][17][18] While Si-based nanoFETs (e.g. nanowires and nanoribbons) have been studied extensively, 6,7,[19][20][21][22] signicant recent research has focussed on semiconducting metal oxides towards better device performance and more scalable fabrication. [9][10][11][12][23][24][25][26] Of the studied oxides, In 2 O 3 displays excellent features for sensing applications.…”