Abstract 4068: A novel microfluidic platform for isolation of circulating tumor cells intended to facilitate downstream biomarker analyses

Abstract

Abstract Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) inherently hold important biomarker information potentially pertinent to cancer patient therapy and prognosis. Many existent technologies capture CTCs inside of a ‘chip’. Because of the difficulties in efficiently removing very small numbers of CTCs from ‘chips’, these technologies have limited potential for downstream (off-chip) analysis opportunities. We have developed a novel microfluidic system for high purity CTC isolation and analysis specifically for post-capture CTC use. Using our device, analytical studies were performed with cell lines (HT29, SKBR3, PC3) to demonstrate recovery and purity capabilities. We isolated CTCs with high purity (from 1.5- 50%) and high capture efficiency (up to 96%) in volumes as low as 5 µl. Clinical samples from stage IV carcinoma patients of several different pathologies were processed and benchmarked against the predicate system. We found, in all cases, CTCs could be identified even when not identified on the predicate system. Further clinical samples indicated in some cases CTCs could be detected as early as stage II. A technique designed to identify somatic mutations in the KRAS oncogene was employed successfully to characterize samples isolated on the device from colon carcinoma patients. Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to characterize Her-2 and Top2A gene status in CTCs isolated from breast carcinoma patients. The use of this device is likely extensible to a wide variety of molecular biology and biochemistry-based biomarker studies which previously have been precluded due to insufficient CTC sample quality. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 4068. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-4068