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Theranostics 2017; 7(13):3179-3191. doi:10.7150/thno.19686 This issue Cite

Research Paper

Label-free Rapid Viable Enrichment of Circulating Tumor Cell by Photosensitive Polymer-based Microfilter Device

Yoon-Tae Kang¹, Il Doh^1#, Jiyoung Byun¹, Hee Jin Chang^2*✉, Young-Ho Cho^1*✉

1. Cell Bench Research Center, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), 291 Daehak-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34141, Republic of Korea;
2. National Cancer Center, 323323 Ilsan-ro, Ilsandong-gu, Goyang-si Gyeonggi-do, 10408, Republic of Korea.
^# Present address: Dr. Il Doh, Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science (KRISS), 267 Gajeong-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34113, Republic of Korea
^* Both authors contributed as corresponding authors.

✉ Corresponding authors: nanosysac.kr

Abstract

We present a clinical device for simple, rapid, and viable isolation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from cancer patient bloods. In spite of the clinical importance of CTCs, the lack of easy and non-biased isolation methods is a big hurdle for implementing CTC into clinical use. The present device made of photosensitive polymer was designed to attach to conventional syringe to isolate the CTCs at minimal resources. Its unique tapered-slits on the filter are capable not only to isolate the cell based on their size and deformability, but also to increase sample flow rate, thus achieving label-free rapid viable CTC isolation. We verified our device performance using 9 different types of cancer cells at the cell concentration from 5 to 100cells/ml, showing that the device capture 77.7% of the CTCs while maintaining their viability of 80.6%. We extended our study using the 18 blood samples from lung, colorectal, pancreatic and renal cancer patients and captured 1-172 CTCs or clustered CTCs by immunofluorescent or immunohistochemical staining. The captured CTCs were also molecularly assayed by RT-PCR with three cancer-associated genes (CK19, EpCAM, and MUC1). Those comprehensive studies proved to use our device for cancer study, thereby inaugurating further in-depth CTC-based clinical researches.

Keywords: Circulating tumor cells, tapered-slit filter, viable rare cell isolation, photosensitive polymer, clinical cancer study.

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