Chip that can detect cancer

Chip

Miniature system-on-chip called CTC-iChip System which is created by the researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital is capable to find even a single cell of any cancer in the bloodstream from the blood test. Problem with these individual tumor cells is that sometimes just one among the billions of blood cells is may stop anywhere in the body and start to produce metastases. Using this chip doctors are able to very fast detect, because of early detection treat these cells with smaller financial backup. This should all happen prior to metastasis, and therefore make the treatment more sucessful.

The chip works in two phases, the first part of the first chip sorts out blood cells initially separating small red blood cells and platelets, thus allowing passage of only (potential) tumor cells and white blood cells. The second part of the chip implements these cells through the winding channels and organizes the cells in the "column" one after another. Magnetic particles of bacteria are glued to specific proteins on white blood cells, which are also separated from the flow and eventually only tumor cells remain that can be individually analyzed with the existing methods.

According to writing of Science magazine this technique can be used to analyze the circulation of other abnormal cells associated with other diseases, but also to explore the reasons why some tumor cells cause metastasis, and some just pass through the body without any consequences.

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