Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Queensland University of Technology of Australia, have developed a device that can isolate individual cancer cells from patient blood samples.
The microfluidic device works by separating the various cell types found in blood by their size. The device may one day enable rapid, cheap liquid biopsies to help detect cancer and develop targeted treatment plans. The findings are reported in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering.
“This new microfluidics chip lets us separate cancer cells from whole blood or minimally-diluted blood,” said Ian Papautsky, the Richard and Loan Hill Professor of Bioengineering in the UIC College of Engineering and corresponding author on the paper. “While devices for detecting cancer cells circulating in the blood are becoming available, most are relatively expensive and are out of reach of many research labs or hospitals. Our device is cheap, and doesn’t require much specimen preparation or dilution, making it fast and easy to use.”
The ability to successfully isolate cancer cells is a crucial step in enabling liquid biopsy where cancer could be detected through a simple blood draw. This would eliminate the discomfort and cost of tissue biopsies which use needles or surgical procedures as part of cancer diagnosis. Liquid biopsy could also be useful in tracking the efficacy of chemotherapy over the course of time, and for detecting cancer in organs difficult to access through traditional biopsy techniques, including the brain and lungs.
However, isolating circulating tumor cells from the blood is no easy task, since they are present in extremely small quantities. For many cancers, circulating cells are present at levels close to one per 1 billion blood cells. “A 7.5-milliliter tube of blood, which is a typical volume for a blood draw, might have ten cancer cells and 35-40 billion blood cells,” said Papautsky. “So we are really looking for a needle in a haystack.”
Microfluidic technologies present an alternative to traditional methods of cell detection in fluids. These devices either use markers to capture targeted cells as they float by, or they take advantage of the physical properties of targeted cells — mainly size — to separate them from other cells present in fluids.
Papautsky and his colleagues developed a device that uses size to separate tumor cells from blood. “Using size differences to separate cell types within a fluid is much easier than affinity separation which uses ‘sticky’ tags that capture the right cell type as it goes by,” said Papautsky. “Affinity separation also requires a lot of advanced purification work which size separation techniques don’t need.”
Learn more: New microfluidics device can detect cancer cells in blood
The Latest on: Cancer blood test
[google_news title=”” keyword=”cancer blood test” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Cancer blood test
- Urine test may determine prostate cancers' level of aggressionon April 19, 2024 at 12:00 am
Researchers say they've developed a urine test that could answer whether prostate cancer is aggressive and requiring immediate treatment, or slow-growing and worthy of monitoring only.
- Stanford’s Innovative Blood Test Offers New Hope for Hodgkin Lymphoma Patientson April 18, 2024 at 9:52 pm
Circulating tumor DNA predicts recurrence and splits disease into two subgroups in Stanford Medicine-led study of Hodgkin lymphoma. New drug targets or changes in treatments may reduce toxicity. A ...
- Academics + Pharma = Big Bucks; New CAR-T Warnings; Patients Seek Cancer Testson April 18, 2024 at 9:00 pm
The FDA has mandated updates to boxed warnings and labeling for CAR T-cell therapies related to a serious risk of T-cell malignancies associated with all BCMA- and CD-19 targeted therapies, saying ...
- New urine test has higher diagnostic accuracy for prostate canceron April 18, 2024 at 10:11 am
A new urine test that measures 18 genes associated with prostate cancer provides higher accuracy for detecting clinically significant cancers than PSA and other existing biomarker tests, according to ...
- Researchers discover urine-based test to detect head and neck canceron April 17, 2024 at 5:31 am
Researchers have created a urine-based test that detects pieces of DNA fragments released by head and neck tumors. The test could potentially facilitate early detection of this cancer type, which ...
- Breakthrough blood tests open new frontiers in cancer detectionon April 16, 2024 at 3:20 pm
A series of cutting-edge blood tests have ignited excitement among cancer specialists, promising a new era in oncology by detecting malignancies that previously went unnoticed until they reached ...
- A blood test to detect cancer? Some patients are using them already.on April 16, 2024 at 3:30 am
New blood tests measure “signals” in the blood to help detect cancer. Experts say more study is needed to determine if the new tests save lives.
- New screening guidance caught her cancer early. Soon, a blood test could give patients more optionson April 12, 2024 at 11:00 pm
ROCHESTER — The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended in 2021 that adults should start being screened for colorectal cancer at age 45 instead of 50. That year, Erin Sexton turned 45.
- New Blood Test Promises Hope for Pancreatic Canceron April 10, 2024 at 12:36 pm
Preliminary results showed that a type of blood test called a “liquid biopsy” was key to achieving a 97% accuracy rate at diagnosing the most common type of pancreatic cancer during early stages.
- Blood test may improve detection of pancreatic cancerson April 8, 2024 at 10:24 am
A blood test appears capable of detecting early-stage pancreatic cancers with up to 97% accuracy, a new study reports.
via Bing News