Issue 10, 2012
From the journal:

Lab on a Chip

Microfluidic approaches for cancer cell detection, characterization, and separation

Jian Chen,a   Jason Libc  and  Yu Sun*bcd  

* Corresponding authors

a State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, P.R. China

b Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: +1 416-978-7753
Tel: +1 416-946-0549

c Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

d Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

Abstract

This article reviews the recent developments in microfluidic technologies for in vitro cancer diagnosis. We summarize the working principles and experimental results of key microfluidic platforms for cancer cell detection, characterization, and separation based on cell-affinity micro-chromatography, magnetic activated micro-sorting, and cellular biophysics (e.g., cell size and mechanical and electrical properties). We examine the advantages and limitations of each technique and discuss future research opportunities for improving device throughput and purity, and for enabling on-chip analysis of captured cancer cells.

Graphical abstract: Microfluidic approaches for cancer cell detection, characterization, and separation

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C2LC21273K
Article type
Critical Review
Submitted
21 Dec 2011
Accepted
10 Feb 2012
First published
15 Feb 2012

Lab Chip, 2012,12, 1753-1767

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Microfluidic approaches for cancer cell detection, characterization, and separation

J. Chen, J. Li and Y. Sun, Lab Chip, 2012, 12, 1753 DOI: 10.1039/C2LC21273K

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