title: Differentiating Metastatic and Non-metastatic Tumor Cells from Their Translocation Profile through Solid-State Micropores.
abstract: Cancer treatment, care, and outcomes are much more effective if started at early stages of the disease. The presence of malignant cancer cells in human samples such as blood or biopsied tissue can be used to reduce overtreatment and underdiagnosis as well as for prognosis monitoring. Reliable quantification of metastatic tumor cells (MTCs) and non-metastatic tumor cells (NMTCs) from human samples can help in cancer staging as well. We report a simple, fast, and reliable approach to identify and quantify metastatic and non-metastatic cancer cells from whole biological samples in a point-of-care manner. The metastatic (MDA MB-231) and non-metastatic (MCF7) breast cancer cells were pushed through a solid-state micropore made in a 200 nm thin SiO2 membrane while measuring current across the micropore. The cells generated very distinctive translocation profiles. The translocation differences stemmed from their peculiar mechanophysical properties. The detection efficiency of the device for each type of tumor cells was ∼75%. MTCs showed faster translocation (36%) and 34% less pore blockage than NMTCs. The micropore approach is simple, exact, and quantitative for metastatic cell detection in a lab-on-a chip setting, without the need for any preprocessing of the sample.
authors.forename: Waqas
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Ali
authors.forename: Azhar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ilyas
authors.forename: Loan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bui
authors.forename: Bailey
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sayles
authors.forename: Yeun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hur
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas , Dallas, Texas 75235, United States.
authors.forename: Young-Tae
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Department of Urology, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas , Dallas, Texas 75235, United States.
authors.forename: Samir M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Iqbal
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D002465:Cell Movement; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D006801:Humans; D061986:MCF-7 Cells; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D016062:Porosity; D046888:Tissue Array Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*