%0 Journal Article
%T Capture of Circulating Tumour Cell Clusters Using Straight Microfluidic Chips
%A Arutha Kulasinghe
%A Chamindie Punyadeera
%A Ian Papautsky
%A Jian Zhou
%A Liz Kenny
%J Archive of "Cancers".
%D 2019
%R 10.3390/cancers11010089
%X Circulating tumour cells (CTCs) are the metastatic precursors to distant disease in head and neck cancers (HNCs). Whilst the prognostic and predictive value of single CTCs have been well documented, the role of CTC clusters, which potentially have a higher metastatic capacity are limited. In this study, the authors used a novel straight microfluidic chip to focus and capture CTCs. The chip offers high cell recoveries with clinically relevant numbers (10¨C500 cells/mL) without the need for further purification. Single CTCs were identified in 10/21 patient samples (range 2¨C24 CTCs/mL), CTC clusters in 9/21 patient samples (range 1¨C6 CTC clusters/mL) and circulating tumour microemboli (CTM) in 2/21 samples. This study demonstrated that CTC clusters contain EGFR amplified single CTCs within the cluster volume. This novel microfluidic chip demonstrates the efficient sorting and preservation of single CTCs, CTC clusters and CTMs. The authors intend to expand this study to a larger cohort to determine the clinical implication of the CTC subsets in HNC
%K circulating tumour cells (CTCs)
%K CTC clusters
%K circulating tumour microemboli
%K head and neck cancers
%K microfluidic technology
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6356955/