When blood flows through the microfluidic device, cancer cells in the blood (shown in yellow) stick to microscopic posts lining the chip (shown in blue).
Credit: Massachusetts General Hospital BioMEMS Resource Center
New publications, experiments and breakthroughs in biotechnology--and what they mean.
Test for Cancer Cells in Blood
An inexpensive microfluidic chip could lead to earlier cancer detection and treatment.
Source: "Isolation of rare cultivating tumour cells in cancer patients by microchip technology"
Mehmet Toner et al.
Nature 450: 1235-1239
Results: A microfluidic device designed by researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston can detect very low blood levels of cells from malignant tumors. In initial tests, the low-cost device detected such cells in the blood of all but one of 116 patients with various types of cancer.
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