Novel Microfluidic Approaches for Detection of Cancer Cells

Abstract

Cancer is mainly define as the uncontrolled growth of abnormal cells in human body. These abnormal growth are termed as tumor cells or malignant cells. There are different types of cancer. There are almost 100 types of cancer including breast cancer, lung cancer, colon cancer, skin cancer, prostate cancer. As per WHO cancer is second leading cause of death in the world, globally it is responsible for almost 9.6 million death in 2018. There are many treatments available for treating cancer which include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery etc. as well as there are many detection techniques available like biopsy, different imaging tests (CT, MRI, PET, X-RAY) etc. Now a day’s microfluidic detection is used for future aspects. This microfluidic chip was introduce in 2002 and used to detect many types of cancerous cells. Basically this chip is a set of micro-channels molded into a materials like glass, silicon or polymer such as PDMS. The micro-channels forming the microfluidic chip are connected together in order to achieve desired features. Advantages of this device include small sample size, fast processing time, multiple capabilities, etc. This device is usually used to detect small cells, rare cells like CTC (circulating tumor cells). It is also used to detect biomarkers and through which we can detect cancer. Many combination therapies are also there through which we can not only separate the cells of cancer but we can also differentiate the DNA of the cells and it gives all the information of the cancer and due to that the cancer treatment can be made easy. Currently this device is used in different forms like Droplet based microfluidic, Digital microfluidic, DNA based chip, etc.