New Microdevice Captures Rare Cancer Cells

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New Microdevice Captures Rare Cancer Cells

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(March 31) -- Cancer patients could soon benefit from a new screening

device that can pick out and analyze rare tumor cells from standard blood

samples, according to a report today in Science Translational Medicine. The

device, which is the size of a business card, could be an alternative to

surgery, offering a noninvasive way of monitoring whether tumors are spreading

to

other parts of the body. All it would require is the prick of a needle.

 

 

" The concept is a blood biopsy, " explains Massachusetts General Hospital

mechanical engineer Shannon Stott, the study's lead author. " The question

is, can we just take a simple blood sample and get the same type of

information that we would get if we did a surgical biopsy? "

 

 

The target cells, known as circulating tumor cells, or CTCs, are most

likely shed into the bloodstream by existing tumors. Even if a tumor is

removed, these cells can seed a new location, causing the cancer to spread. Not

all of them are necessarily harmful, Stott tells AOL News. " But some

population of the cells may have the potential to find a new place to take

root, "

she says.

 

 

Scientists have long been working to develop a technology that can pick

out these cells, but the technical challenges are significant. An

FDA-approved technology called _CellSearch_

(http://www.veridex.com/CellSearch/CellSearchHCP.aspx) uses a multistep

process to analyze blood for CTCs, but

Stott says her device is more sensitive, registering much higher numbers of the

fragile cells, and that it could be used to gather more valuable

information.

 

 

In the new study, Stott and her colleagues used their business-card-sized

device to analyze blood samples from 55 prostate cancer patients. The

device has nearly 80,000 microposts, or pillars, each of which is coated with

an

antibody that effectively traps target cancer cells. When the scientists

run a volume of blood through it, the CTCs stick to these pillars. The rest

of the blood is then washed away, leaving only the target cells for

analysis.

 

Even though these cells can be as rare as one in 10 billion, Stott says

the device was able to capture hundreds of them per milliliter of blood. The

scientists were also able to study the health of the CTCs -- whether they

were ready to die off or poised to divide and spread.

 

 

Stott and her colleagues tested samples of each patient's blood taken

before prostate-removal surgery, and follow-ups collected after intervals of 24

hours, nine days and three months had elapsed. Many of the patients had

little or no CTCs at the start, and with others, their levels dropped

immediately after the surgery.

 

 

But for one subset, Stott says, the rare cells stuck around through that

three-month follow-up. " What we're going to do now is continue to track

these patients for the next two years to see if there's any meaning, " she says.

" Is that a sign of a more invasive prostate cancer? "

 

 

Though the current work focuses on prostate cancer, Stott says the

technology is applicable to many other forms of the disease -- citing breast

cancer and lung cancer as two additional possibilities. She says the group

hopes

to develop a faster, more efficient plug-and-play version of the device

for wider clinical use.

 

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