title: Simultaneous MEMS-based electro-mechanical phenotyping of breast cancer.
abstract: Carcinomas are the most commonly diagnosed cancers originating in the skin, lungs, breasts, pancreas, and other organs and glands. In most of the cases, the microenvironment within the tissue changes with the progression of disease. A key challenge is to develop a device capable of providing quantitative indicators in diagnosing cancer by measuring alteration in electrical and mechanical property of the tissues from the onset of malignancy. We demonstrate micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) based flexible polymer microsensor array capable of simultaneously measuring electro-mechanical properties of the breast tissues cores (1 mm in diameter and 10 μm in thickness) from onset through progression of the cancer. The electrical and mechanical signatures obtained from the tissue cores shows the capability of the device to clearly demarcate the specific stages of cancer in epithelial and stromal regions providing quantitative indicators facilitating the diagnosis of breast cancer. The present study shows that electro-mechanical properties of the breast tissue core at the micro-level are different than those at the macro-level.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Maryland Robotics Center, Institute for Systems Research, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA. hjpandya@umd.edu.
authors.forename: Hardik J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Pandya
authors.forename: Kihan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Wenjin
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Marina A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Chekmareva
authors.forename: David J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Foran
authors.forename: Jaydev P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Desai
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D056656:Lab-On-A-Chip Devices; D012189:Retrospective Studies