scholarly journals Microfluidic Chip-Based Cancer Diagnosis and Prediction of Relapse by Detecting Circulating Tumor Cells and Circulating Cancer Stem Cells

Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 1385
Author(s):  
Hyeon-Yeol Cho ◽  
Jin-Ha Choi ◽  
Joungpyo Lim ◽  
Sang-Nam Lee ◽  
Jeong-Woo Choi

Detecting circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has been considered one of the best biomarkers in liquid biopsy for early diagnosis and prognosis monitoring in cancer. A major challenge of using CTCs is detecting extremely low-concentrated targets in the presence of high noise factors such as serum and hematopoietic cells. This review provides a selective overview of the recent progress in the design of microfluidic devices with optical sensing tools and their application in the detection and analysis of CTCs and their small malignant subset, circulating cancer stem cells (CCSCs). Moreover, discussion of novel strategies to analyze the differentiation of circulating cancer stem cells will contribute to an understanding of metastatic cancer, which can help clinicians to make a better assessment. We believe that the topic discussed in this review can provide brief guideline for the development of microfluidic-based optical biosensors in cancer prognosis monitoring and clinical applications.

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. BCBCR.S40856 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Sayed ◽  
A.M. Zahran ◽  
M.S.F. Hassan ◽  
D.O. Mohamed

Purpose Despite the therapeutic advances, disease recurrence remains an ever-present threat to the health and well-being of breast cancer survivors. Assessment of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) and cancer stem cells (CSCs) during and after treatment may be of value in refining treatment. Methods Three 5 mL blood samples were taken from each patient: the first, at diagnosis; the second, after completion of neoadjuvant anthracyclin-based chemotherapy; and the third, a month after surgery and completion of adjuvant radiotherapy. The absolute numbers of CTCs were identified as CD45-cytokeratin+ cells. CTCs per 5 mL of blood were determined by recording all events in the whole suspension. CSCs were identified as cytokeratin+CD44+CD24-/CD45- cells. The CSCs were expressed as a percentage of CTCs. Results Univariate analysis identified the measurements of baseline CTCs and CSCs, taken after chemotherapy and one month after the cessation of radiotherapy, as prognostic factors for both four-year disease-free survival and four-year overall survival. Multivariable analysis identified the third measurement of CSCs, taken one month after the completion of radiotherapy, as the only independent prognostic factor for the four-year disease-free survival (P < 0.002, hazard ratio [HR] = 1.231, 95% CI 1.077–1.407). The initial CTC measurement was the one factor that reached significance on multivariate analysis (P < 0.03, HR 1.969, 95% CI 1.092–3.551) for the four-year overall survival. Correlation was higher between CTC and CSC counts at diagnosis ( r = 0.654, P < 0.001) than after chemotherapy ( r = 0.317, P < 0.03), because of the more rapid decrease in the mean CTC count with chemotherapy. Conclusion The CTC count could be suitable as one of the measures for monitoring response to chemotherapy, while persistence of CSC after cessation of the treatment of nonmetastatic breast cancer, except hormonal therapy when indicated, may be a reason to consider additional therapy in the future. These findings need confirmation in larger randomized trials.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 102106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Petra Gener ◽  
Sara Montero ◽  
Helena Xandri-Monje ◽  
Zamira V. Díaz-Riascos ◽  
Diana Rafael ◽  
...  

Tumor Biology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 101042831769591 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheefa Mirza ◽  
Nayan Jain ◽  
Rakesh Rawal

Lung cancer stem cells are supposed to be the main drivers of tumor initiation, maintenance, drug resistance, and relapse of the disease. Hence, identification of the cellular and molecular aspects of these cells is a prerequisite for targeted therapy of lung cancer. Currently, analysis of circulating tumor cells has the potential to become the main diagnostic technique to monitor disease progression or therapeutic response as it is non-invasive. However, accurate detection of circulating tumor cells has remained a challenge, as epithelial cell markers used so far are not always trustworthy for detecting circulating tumor cells, especially during epithelial–mesenchymal transition. As cancer stem cells are the only culprit to initiate metastatic tumors, our aim was to isolate and characterize circulating tumor stem cells rather than circulating tumor cells from the peripheral blood of NSCLC adenocarcinoma as limited data are available addressing the gene expression profiling of lung cancer stem cells. Here, we reveal that CD44(+)/CD24(−) population in circulation not only exhibit stem cell–related genes but also possess epithelial–mesenchymal transition characteristics. In conclusion, the use of one or more cancer stem cell markers along with epithelial, mesenchymal and epithelial mesenchymal transition markers will prospectively provide the most precise assessment of the threat for recurrence and metastatic disease and has a great potential for forthcoming applications in harvesting circulating tumor stem cells and their downstream applications. Our results will aid in developing diagnostic and prognostic modalities and personalized treatment regimens like dendritic cell–based immunotherapy that can be utilized for targeting and eliminating circulating tumor stem cells, to significantly reduce the possibility of relapse and improve clinical outcomes.


2013 ◽  
Vol 29 (5) ◽  
pp. 1763-1768 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. PIROZZI ◽  
V. TIRINO ◽  
R. CAMERLINGO ◽  
A. LA ROCCA ◽  
N. MARTUCCI ◽  
...  

2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Toloudi ◽  
Panagiotis Apostolou ◽  
Marina Chatziioannou ◽  
Ioannis Papasotiriou

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