A new approach to liquid biopsy

"Cell traps" will reveal cancer cells among millions of healthy

Sergey Kolenov, Hi-tech+

One of the most promising methods of cancer diagnosis is considered to be liquid biopsy – the detection of free malignant cells or tumor DNA in the blood. However, identifying several cancer cells among billions of healthy ones is not an easy task.

Most liquid biopsy methods are based on the recognition of specific markers on the surface of cancer cells. Unfortunately, malignant cells mutate regularly, which complicates the diagnostic process. Experts from the Georgia Tech University, whose work is described in a press release 3D-Printed Device Finds ‘Needle in a Haystack’ Cancer Cells by Removing the Hay.

The appearance of the device and the scheme of its operation.

The researchers printed three-dimensional traps with sinuous channels coated with antigens to capture healthy white blood cells. The device allows you to extract almost all white blood cells from the sample. Then, smaller red blood cells are removed from it using a standard filter.

In a sample treated in this way, it is much easier to detect malignant cells and arrange them to identify a specific type of cancer.

To test the traps, the researchers took blood samples from healthy people and added a certain number of cancer cells from prostate, breast and ovarian tumors to them. The experiment showed that the device captures 90% of malignant cells.

The authors are confident that their technique is suitable for the diagnosis of most types of cancer. At the next stage, the team plans to improve the methodology – in particular, to increase the efficiency of white blood cell capture. If the researchers are successful, doctors will have an affordable and easy way to diagnose cancer.

Article by Chu et al. Hybrid Negative Enrichment of Circulating Tumor Cells from Whole Blood in a 3D-Printed Monolithic Device is published in the journal Lab on a Chip – VM.

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