Optofluidic device for the quantification of circulating tumor cells in breast cancer

Abstract

Metastatic cancer patients require a continuous monitoring during the sequential treatment cycles to carefully evaluate their disease evolution. Repetition of biopsies is very invasive and not always feasible. Herein, we design and demonstrate a 3D-flow focusing microfluidic device, where all optics are integrated into the chip, for the fluorescence quantification of CTCs in real samples. To test the chip performance, two cell membrane targets, the epithelial cell adhesion molecule, EpCAM, and the receptor tyrosine-protein kinase, HER2, are selected. The efficiency of the platform is demonstrated on cell lines and in a variety of healthy donors and metastatic-breast cancer patients.

Cancer characterization and diagnosis with SERS-encoded particles

“…In the latter case, direct identification of tumor markers, such as cancer cells, contained in bodily fluids (i.e., liquid biopsies) likely represents the most powerful approach for the noninvasive and real-time monitoring of the disease progression or recurrence and the response to various treatments, which can also lead to key insights into the development of specific resistances (Schumacher and Scheper 2016;Siravegna et al 2017). In this regard, studies of integration of SEPs with modular microfluidic platforms have demonstrated the potential to efficiently combine in an assay the rapid sample processing and precise control of biofluids with the fast optical detection of cancer cells (Hoonejani et al 2015;Pedrol et al 2017;Sackmann et al 2014;Shields et al 2015;Zhou and Kim 2016).…”

Microfluidics for studying metastatic patterns of lung cancer

“…This requires larger equipment and staff specialized in electronics, however these inconveniences are currently being addressed. A microchip that integrates optics for fluorescence quantification of CTCs has been described and the results obtained using the optofluidic device were consistent with those obtained from flow-cytometry, conventional imaging and serological tests [124].…”

“…The application of antibodies against specific antigens toward particular cancers were also reported [115]. For example, anti-tyrosine-protein kinase receptor (anti-HER2) was employed for recognition of HER2 positive breast cancer [124]. An antibody for prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) was used for prostate cancer circulating tumor cells entrapment [125].…”

Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy in Cancer Diagnosis, Prognosis and Monitoring

“…The most straightforward and widely investigated implementation of SERS to cancer-related applications is as an optical imaging technique for molecular characterization of tumor tissues in place of (or in combination with) fluorescence spectroscopy. SERS-encoded particles (SEPs) may substitute for fluorescent reporters [11,12,13] (typically, fluorescently-labelled antibodies selective for specific protein receptors on the cell surface) as contrast agents. SEPs always combine a SERS molecular code, yielding a unique vibrational fingerprint (signal read-out), bound to a plasmonic core (mostly, silver or gold), as required for the enhancement of the weak Raman signal (Figure 1A).…”