Detection of circulating tumor cells in cancer diagnostics and therapy control

Nowadays, cancer is one of the main causes for death. Hence, the development of fast and reliable technologies for cancer diagnostics and therapy monitoring is of enormous interest. In this regard, the clinical significance of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is discussed for different types of cancer. For metastasized patients with breast cancer the prognostic relevance of CTC detection in peripheral blood was already demonstrated. Against this background, the control of therapy responses through monitoring of CTC presence and numbers in peripheral blood before, during and after therapy becomes of increasing interest. Additional molecular characterization of the isolated CTCs could add further knowhow to understanding the molecular principles of the disease and contribute to the development of new, personalized therapeutic approaches. The isolation of CTCs is challenging, since the number of CTCs is exteremely low as compared to the huge background of blood cells (down to 1 CTC / ml of blood).

The MASCOT project, funded in the EU FP 6 framework, focussed on the development of a modular, microfluidic system for the isolation, enrichment, and molecular characterization of CTCs form peripheral blood (up to 7.5 ml). IMM took the responsibility for the development and realization of the microfluidic modules as well as the required periphery including actuation and fluidic control components as well as the electronic circuit. The system compasses a number of sequentially connected modules which allow for immuno-magnetic isolation and enrichment of CTCs, their separation from the background of free beads and enumeration, the extraction of mRNA and amplification via Reverse Transcriptase MLPA (Reverse Transcriptase Multiplex Ligation-dependent Probe Amplification) as well as an electrochemical analysis of the amplicons.

Contact: Dr. Tina Röser, Fluidics and Simulation Department,
Phone: +49 6131/990 432

More information about the MASCOT project

Project data sheet  177 KB