Microfluidic Chip Developed For Easy, High-Speed and Cheap Cancer Testing

An innovative in vitro system based on a microfluidic chip for identification of certain proteins (HER2) in cancerous tissues has been developed by EPFL and Institute of Pathology at the Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) scientists. It is extremely fast, precise, inexpensive, and easy to use, the researchers say.

The presence of an abnormal amount of protein HER2 on the surface of cancer cells is known to signify the risk of metastasis of cancer among a significant percentage of patients, and it is important to diagnose this in order prescribe more effective customized treatment.

Accurate analysis of tumor tissue is therefore critical to effectively fight breast cancer and improve the chances of recovery.

The new diagnostic tool enables physicians to make an accurate assessment of the disease in a few minutes, in contrast to traditional methods, which require several hours.

It comes in a chip made of silicon and glass, gridded by channels 100 microns in diameter. The principle is to make antibodies attach to the HER2 proteins of the cancerous tissue and detect them by fluorescence. The device can irrigate the entire sample evenly and for a set time.

"Currently, tissue samples must be bathed for a long time in a solution full of antibodies, so that each part of the tissue is thoroughly exposed," says Martin Gijs, co-author of the publication and Director of the Laboratory of Microsystems (LMIS2). "But with this long period of immersion, the antibodies can disproportionately cling to targeted proteins or places where the proteins are not present, which gives ambiguous results. Frequently, complex and expensive genetic analysis (ISH) must then be additionally carried out."

The big advantage of the new system is obvious when looking at the test results, where the conventional method only yielded clear results on 49 of the 76 tested samples. The chip fast not only much faster, but also correctly identified 73 of 76 samples -- which will allow patients to receive to correct and most effective treatment more often. "Initially, we tested our system with the HER2 protein, but the method could also be adapted to test other biomarkers involving different types of cancers," predicts Ata Tuna Ciftlik, lead author of the study. After obtaining his doctorate, the researcher additionally hopes to found a start-up to commercialize his system. "We're in the process of raising funds for this project."

Study:

Ata Tuna Ciftlik, Hans-Anton Lehr, and Martin A. M. Gijs, Microfluidic processor allows rapid HER2 immunohistochemistry of breast carcinomas and significantly reduces ambiguous (2+) read-outs, PNAS, 2013, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1211273110