Department of Nanoscience and Engineering, Center for Nano Manufacturing, Inje University, Gimhae 621-749, Republic of Korea.
Analyst. 2018 Jun 25;143(13):2936-2970. doi: 10.1039/c7an01979c.
Metastasis is the main cause of tumor-related death, and the dispersal of tumor cells through the circulatory system is a critical step in the metastatic process. Early detection and analysis of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is therefore important for early diagnosis, prognosis, and effective treatment of cancer, enabling favorable clinical outcomes in cancer patients. Accurate and reliable methods for isolating and detecting CTCs are necessary to obtain this clinical information. Over the past two decades, microfluidic technologies have demonstrated great potential for isolating and detecting CTCs from blood. The present paper reviews current advanced microfluidic technologies for isolating CTCs based on various biological and physical principles, and discusses their fundamental advantages and drawbacks for subsequent cellular and molecular assays. Owing to significant genetic heterogeneity among CTCs, microfluidic technologies for isolating individual CTCs have recently been developed. We discuss these single-cell isolation methods, as well as approaches to overcoming the limitations of current microfluidic CTC isolation technologies. Finally, we provide an overview of future innovative microfluidic platforms.
转移是肿瘤相关死亡的主要原因，肿瘤细胞通过循环系统扩散是转移过程中的关键步骤。因此，早期检测和分析循环肿瘤细胞（CTC）对于癌症的早期诊断、预后和有效治疗非常重要，可以为癌症患者带来有利的临床结果。获得这些临床信息需要准确可靠的方法来分离和检测 CTC。在过去的二十年中，微流控技术在从血液中分离和检测 CTC 方面显示出巨大的潜力。本文综述了目前基于各种生物学和物理原理的先进的微流控技术用于分离 CTC，讨论了它们在后续细胞和分子分析中的基本优缺点。由于 CTC 之间存在显著的遗传异质性，最近已经开发出用于分离单个 CTC 的微流控技术。我们讨论了这些单细胞分离方法，以及克服当前微流控 CTC 分离技术局限性的方法。最后，我们概述了未来创新的微流控平台。
