Abstract
Cancer represents one of the conditions with the most causes of death worldwide. Common methods for its diagnosis are based on tissue biopsies—the extraction of tissue from the primary tumor, which is used for its histological analysis. However, this technique represents a risk for the patient, along with being expensive and time-consuming and so it cannot be frequently used to follow the progress of the disease. Liquid biopsy is a new cancer diagnostic alternative, which allows the analysis of the molecular information of the solid tumors via a body fluid draw. This fluid-based diagnostic method displays relevant advantages, including its minimal invasiveness, lower risk, use as often as required, it can be analyzed with the use of microfluidic-based platforms with low consumption of reagent, and it does not require specialized personnel and expensive equipment for the diagnosis. In recent years, the integration of sensors in microfluidics lab-on-a-chip devices was performed for liquid biopsies applications, granting significant advantages in the separation and detection of circulating tumor nucleic acids (ctNAs), circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and exosomes. The improvements in isolation and detection technologies offer increasingly sensitive and selective equipment’s, and the integration in microfluidic devices provides a better characterization and analysis of these biomarkers. These fully integrated systems will facilitate the generation of fully automatized platforms at low-cost for compact cancer diagnosis systems at an early stage and for the prediction and prognosis of cancer treatment through the biomarkers for personalized tumor analysis.
Highlights
Uncontrollable cell growth is produced due to the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic modifications that regulate the main tumor cell functions, such as proliferation, survival, development, propagation, and differentiation
Liquid biopsy has recently appeared as a novel technique for early diagnosis of cancer and is Another integrated microfluidic technology was based on an ionic membrane modular biochip considered one of the most promising technologies for monitoring the evolution of the disease during platform developed by Slouka et al, 2015 [124] (Figure 5C)
With high selectivity and sensitivity, using raw cell media or cell lysate as the substrate. This biochip the development of microfluidic systems for isolating and detecting body fluid cancer biomarkers incorporates three different modules: (1) Nucleic acid (NA) extraction; (2) cell waste, protein and long RNA separation has been improving by integrating sensing approaches in LOCs, which provide several advantages from short micro RNA (miRNA); and (3) specific miRNAs capture
Summary
Uncontrollable cell growth is produced due to the accumulation of genetic and epigenetic modifications that regulate the main tumor cell functions, such as proliferation, survival, development, propagation, and differentiation This disorder, along with its respective alterations, gives rise to a series of heterogeneous diseases known as cancer. Imaging techniques are used in conjunction with tissue biopsies to offer a better profiling of the tumor These are, inadequate for a thorough study of the tumor, in addition to high radiation levels provided by radiology, which might expose the patient to a health problem. Microfluidic platforms, integrating biosensors such as LOCs, have been getting more interest from the research community as an excellent tool to analyze liquid biopsy This technology offers several advantages for diagnostics, as it can improve efficiency, portability, analysis speed, automation, and miniaturization, as well as lower the consumption of a reagent, lower cost and make usage easier. Liquid biopsies will certainly expand in the future as a key diagnostic element for early detection of cancer
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