MGH Microchip Device Isolates Circulating Tumor Cells
Scientists from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) BioMicroMechanical Systems (BioMEMS) Resource Center and the MGH Cancer Center have developed a new microchip-based device that can isolate circulating tumor cells (CTC) in a blood sample.
The new CTC-chip is a business-card sized silicon chip covered with almost 80,000 microscopic posts smaller than a human hair. The specially designed posts are coated with antibodies that act like a glue so the tumor cells will adhere to them.
Unlike the current technologies used to detect CTCs, this test doesn’t require any pre-processing of the blood samples so fragile CTCs aren’t destroyed before they can be counted.
To evaluate the device, the researchers took blood samples from cancer patients with breast, colorectal, lung, pancreatic and prostate tumors as well as healthy control subjects. The CTC-chip produced a 99% sensitivity rating in the patients with cancer and registered no CTCs in samples from cancer-free control volunteers.
Although more studies will be required before the CTC-chip is ready for clinical use, the researchers are optimistic this new device will one day give oncologists a way to quickly monitor how patients are responding to therapy. As one of the scientists explained,
“Some of these tumors have several potential drugs to choose from, and the ability to monitor therapeutic response in real time with this device – which has an exquisite sensitivity to CTCs – could rapidly signal whether a treatment is working or if another option should be tried.”
Mehmet Toner, PhD
Director, BioMEMS Resource Center
Massachusetts General Hospital
If you’d like to learn more about this project, details have been published in the December 20, 2007, edition of Nature.
Source: HarvardScience
Related Links: ajc.com; henryfordhealth.org
Related Video: Detecting Circulating Tumor Cells from University of Washington Television
Tags: Daniel Haber, MD, PhD; Ronald Tompkins, MD, ScD; nanofluidics; nanobiotechnology; Boston; Harvard Medical School; Shriner’s Hospital; metastatic disease
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