Microchip Spots Stray Tumor Cells in the Bloodstream

WEDNESDAY, Dec. 19 (HealthDay News) -- A U.S. team has developed amicrochip device that can detect rare tumor cells lingering in thebloodstream.
The device has a silicon chip with about 80,000 microscopic posts. Eachpost is coated with an antibody to a particular protein expressed by mostsolid tumors. The device is able to capture, count and analyze circulatingtumor cells (CTCs) from a blood sample, the researchers say.
CTCs are cells from solid tumors that circulate in the bloodstream at alevel of one in a billion cells. Because they're rare and fragile, it'sbeen impossible to use CTCs to help doctors make clinical decisions aboutcancer patients.
This new CTC-chip may prove effective in helping monitor and guidecancer treatment, said the team of researchers from the MassachusettsGeneral Hospital (MGH) in Boston. A report on the new chip is published inthe Dec. 20 issue of the journal Nature.
"This use of nanofluidics to find such rare cells is revolutionary, thefirst application of this technology to a broad, clinically importantproblem," Dr. Daniel Haber, director of the MGH Cancer Center and reportco-author, said in a prepared statement.
"While much work remains to be done, this approach raises thepossibility of rapidly and noninvasively monitoring tumor response totreatment, allowing changes if the treatment is not effective, and thepotential of early-detection screening in people at increased risk forcancer," Haber said.