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Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) cause cancer metastases, but they could have redemptive quality if we could use them as biomarkers for these cancers. For most neoplasms, biopsies are performed to definitively diagnose the disease, but circulating tumor cells provide the opportunity for "liquid biopsies" requiring only blood sampling.
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a portable device that can continuously scan whole blood for CTC and make it available to pathologists.
"Nobody wants to do a biopsy. If we could get enough cancer cells in the blood, we could use them to learn about the biology of the tumor and direct care to patients. It's enthusiasm that explains why we do this, "said Daniel F. Hayes, M.D., lead author of the study, in a statement.
Capturing CTCs is difficult because of their scarcity. Typically, a blood sample is taken and a very sensitive device is used to identify the few CTCs in that sample. The new device from the University of Manitoba stays with the patient for a long time, which allows him to use more blood efficiently for his sample.
In addition, since the tumor does not always release the same amount of CTC, a sample taken at a given time may have too few target cells to find. The new device can take samples as often as necessary, which should avoid the accuracy problems associated with the timing of blood tests.
So far, the technology has been tested in dogs given CTC injections (do not worry, it did not cause cancer in these dogs). The portable device was set up to take samples every 20 minutes and it actually spotted the CTCs. It was small enough that dogs could wear it for several hours and could be turned into a simple strap that a patient could wear.
Some details about what the research team had to do to achieve this latest development, according to the University of Saskatchewan:
They have developed protocols for mixing blood with heparin, a drug preventing clotting, and sterilization methods to kill bacteria without harming the cell-targeting immune markers, or antibodies, present on the chip . Kim has also packaged some of the smaller, medical-grade pumps into a 3D printed case with electronic and cancer cell capture chip.
The chip itself is a new version of one of Nagrath's most powerful devices. It uses graphene oxide nanomaterial to create dense forests of molecule chains with an antibody end, which allows it to trap more than 80% of cancer cells in the whole blood that passes through it. The chip can also be used to grow the captured cancer cells, thus producing larger samples for further analysis.
Study in Nature Communications: Temporary Intravascular Aphaeretic System for In Vivo Enrichment of Circulating Tumor Cells
Via: University of Michigan …
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