Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), are cells found in the bloodstream during the metastasis process, which originate from primary or secondary tumors in patients with cancer. The number of CTCs in the blood, can be used for early diagnosis, prognosis evaluation and even treatment efficiency evaluation. CTCs have different surface markers than the normal blood cells and are defined as EpCAM~+/C/CK~+/DAPC/CD45~- cells. In this paper we describe the development of a microfluidic device which can count, and capture CTCs present in a blood sample from cancer patients. The device has a lysis section, a lysis stopping and cell conservation region, two counting electrodes and an antibody functionalized micro-structured capture chamber. The lysis section is used to destroy erythrocytes, whose number is of millions per microliter of blood and can interfere with the count. The electrodes, situated at the entrance and exit of the capture chamber, rely on Coulter Principle to count CTCs, which are larger than other blood cells. The capture chamber is functionalized with anti-EpCAM antibodies, which are going to specifically capture the CTCs in the blood sample. By using two types of CTCs detection methods, our device has increased specificity and sensibility and by changing the antibodies we can study and capture different tumor cell subpopulations.
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