Researchers at Harvard and Children’s Hospital Boston have teamed up to create a microfluidic device that harvests and cultures circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from blood samples.
Such cells are shed by primary tumors and circulate in the bloodstream. They sometimes cause metastases, or new recurrences of cancer distant from the original tumor. As such, these cells can shed important light on how far a given cancer has progressed, how that particular patient might respond to drugs and other treatments, and more.
Reporting in the journal Lab on a Chip, the team describes its approach as combining microfluidics and micromagnetics within a device roughly the size of a credit card.
via cnet
April 30, 2012
