The time required for CTC detection using CellSearch, a technology currently approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is upwards of three to four hours, according to study author Dr. Hao Wang, a postdoctoral researcher at the Crump Institute and the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. The UCLA study found an optimal detection time of only two hours using nanopillar chips.

The nanopillar chip uses a common chamber slide, which fits into standard laboratory cell incubators. After the chip has been incubated and immunofluorescence-stained, an automated fluorescence microscope is used to identify and count the CTCs. The very simple device setting on the chamber slide allows multiple CTC detections to occur at the same time.

"We hope that this platform can provide a convenient and cost-efficient alternative to CTC sorting by using mostly standard lab equipment," said senior study author Dr. Hsian-Rong Tseng, associate professor of molecular and medical pharmacology at the Crump Institute and the California NanoSystems Institute.

The next step is more clinical research and possible studies with "break-away" cancer cells in patients' blood, as well as in other body fluids, such as urine and abdominal fluids, according to Tseng, who is also a researcher at UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Source: University of California - Los Angeles