Application of silicon nitride membrane filters in circulating tumor cell capture

Abstract

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) have been recognized as holding extraordinary potential for disease management in cancer patients including prognostic, therapy, and monitoring disease progression. Sensitive and quick detection of CTC could enable the approach to patients with early-stage and metastatic cancer. The technical challenge in this field consists of finding rare tumor cells (just a few CTCs in 1 ml of blood) and being able to distinguish them from epithelial non-tumor cells and leukocytes. The current methodologies have significant limitations such as low capture efficiency, cannot capture live cells and time consuming. This paper presents the development of a new generation of microfilter for size-based isolation of CTCs in epithelial cancer using silicon nitride membrane filters 0.5 cm by 0.5 cm square sheets with slit shaped pores of 5μm by 15μm. We evaluated the sensitivity and efficiency of CTCs capture in a model system using the MCF-7 cells (breast cancer cells) spiked in the blood from the healthy donors. Preliminary results this research shown that silicon nitride membrane filter is a very good candidate to be CTCs detection platfo.