Abstract 4827: Investigation of the survival of circulating breast tumor cells using biomimetic microfluidic circulation system

Abstract

Abstract Distant metastases are the cause of about 90% of breast cancer patient death and the overall survival rate for metastatic breast cancer is only about 16%. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) shed from the primary tumor, travel through the blood to distant anatomic sites and cause metastasis. The survival of CTCs in blood vascular system is a challenging pre-requisite of successful metastasis, as the biochemical and mechanical environment of circulation is vastly different from the primary tumor sites. Studies related to the fate of CTCs in circulation are mainly limited by lack of well-controlled and realistic experimental models. We have developed a microfluidic device that mimics the human blood circulatory system in order to study the mechanism underlying the survival of cancer cells in the blood circulation. The circulation device integrates a network of channels with a self-contained micropump can generate pulsatile fluid flow pattern and corresponding fluidic forces, which can represent the nature of blood flow and haemodynamic forces in the vasculature. The survival rate of breast cancer cell line MCF7 in circulation was measured via this microfluidic platform. MCF-7 cells in circulation device had a much lower survival rate compared with those in control device. The survival rate of MCF-7 cells after circulating 1, 2 and 4 hours are respectively 48.8%, 36.3% and 10.7%, while the survival rate in control device after 1, 2 and 4 hours are 93.7%, 77.6% and 94.30%. We further compared the survival rate of MCF-7 cells with SUM-159 cells. We hypothesize that by assessing the differential survival ability of breast cancer cells with varied EMT traits can reveal the key signatures of the metastatic tumor cells. Citation Format: Yang Wang. Investigation of the survival of circulating breast tumor cells using biomimetic microfluidic circulation system. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4827. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4827