Zou Dan, Cui Daxiang
Institute of Nano Biomedicine and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center for Intelligent Instrument for Diagnosis and Therapy, Department of Instrument Science & Engineering, School of Electronic Information and Electrical Engineering, National Center for Translational Medicine, Collaborative Innovational Center for System Biology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, China.
Cancer Biol Med. 2018 Nov;15(4):335-353. doi: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2018.0256.
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are the cancer cells that circulate in the peripheral blood after escaping from the original or metastatic tumors. CTCs could be used as non-invasive source of clinical information in early diagnosis of cancer and evaluation of cancer development. In recent years, CTC research has become a hotspot field wherein many novel CTC detection technologies based on microfluidics have been developed. Great advances have been made that exhibit obvious technical advantages, but cannot yet satisfy the current clinical requirements. In this study, we review the main advances in isolation and detection methods of CTC based on microfluidics research over several years, propose five technical indicators for evaluating these methods, and explore the application prospects. We also discuss the concepts, issues, approaches, advantages, limitations, and challenges with an aim of stimulating a broader interest in developing microfluidics-based CTC detection technology.
循环肿瘤细胞（CTCs）是指从原发肿瘤或转移瘤中逸出后在外周血中循环的癌细胞。CTCs可作为癌症早期诊断和癌症进展评估的非侵入性临床信息来源。近年来，CTCs研究已成为一个热点领域，其中已开发出许多基于微流控技术的新型CTCs检测技术。虽然已经取得了巨大进展，显示出明显的技术优势，但仍不能满足当前的临床需求。在本研究中，我们回顾了多年来基于微流控技术的CTCs分离和检测方法的主要进展，提出了评估这些方法的五项技术指标，并探讨了其应用前景。我们还讨论了相关概念、问题、方法、优势、局限性和挑战，旨在激发人们对开发基于微流控技术的CTCs检测技术产生更广泛的兴趣。
