Rapid Detection of Cancer and Follow-up Treatments Thanks to Groundbreaking Lab-on-chip
IMM (the Institüt für Mikrotechnik Mainz), leading European research complex in micro-fluids IMEC which is a large European research complex in nanotechnology and nano-electronics and their collaborators for the European Sixth Framework Project MASCOT managed to set the grounds for the technology of creating a lab-on-chip device in order to discover and treat the development of breast malignant tumors.
The MASCOT project comprises IMEC, Institut für Mikrotechnik Mainz, AdnaGenAG from Germany, Universitat Rovira i Virgili from Sweden, NorwegianRadium Hospital in Norway, MRC Holland from The Netherlands and FuijerebioDiagnosticsAB from Spain. Their purpose was to create an incorporated nano-system for isolating through magnetic means and analyzing single malignant cells that circulate the blood flow in order to establish cancer diagnostics and the future treatment that patients need to undergo.
The MASCOT project was financed in part by the European Commission (IST-027652).
This device is the first of its kind because it comprises various significant preparation phases for samples and muxing based detection which was created and implemented in the lab-on chip. An interesting fact is that all the module complexes for investigating and mingling with the samples and the detection feature of the gadget are preparing to be even further minimized in order to be incorporated in just one lab-on-chip device. The researchers desire that this complex would become feasible in a medical manner in the Oslo during the studies of breast cancer treatments.
A great thing is that this circulating cancer diagnosis represents an important methodology for a personalized tracking of people who suffer from malignant tumors both in an early development stage and in an advanced one. This, in turn, would lead to an improvement in the physicians and surgeons` decision-making ability.
Taking into consideration breast cancer, 5 milliliters of blood comprise just two or three cells coming from tumors. In order to find out from the blood tests if someone has developed malignant tumors, the malignant cells circulating in the blood flow have to be isolated, caught and their genetics have to be observed.
The nowadays diagnostics done in the labs of the medical facilities are not time- and cost-effective and require a lot of work. This type of diagnosis might ask for a number of processing phases for the sample in various medical tools so the complete analysis of the sample is for sure to take more than 24 hours. On the other hand, the lab-on-chip technology could have many benefits for the entire medical world and the people who are ill. This innovative system is cost-effective, has easy usage and is very fast compared to the past methods. An interesting aspect of this technology is that it does not need medical laboratories and laborious hours. Instead, the tests comprised by the lab-on-chip can be undergone routinely either in the physician`s office or nearby the bed of the sick person. Thus, the lab-on-chip technology represent a time saving opportunity which does not require laborious work do be done in order to get the results to diagnosis tests. Moreover, it provides the minimum of body invasion in order to discover cancer cells and a customized treatment and screening.
The study`s collaborators created a modular platform in which every module performed a specific job and kept its independence. This endowment means that the technology can be utilized in numerous medical tests. The first module of the platform is the incubation one which has the role of mixing the blood under testing with specialized magnetic beads in order to link the tumor cells to one another. The second module has the role to isolate the malignant cells and count them thanks to a magnetic characteristic which can attract each cell and dielectrophoresis function. The third one is entitled the amplification module. It has the role to destroy the wall comprising malignant cells and by doing this the mRNA, the desired genetic material, is taken out from the sample and enhanced by using MLPA (multiplex ligation dependent probe amplification).
In the third module, certain procedures that measure the biochemical substances from the extracted substance enhance approximately twenty markers that are generated in the carcinoma cells of the breast. In the last module used for detection, the enhanced genetic substance is discovered by utilizing a series of electrochemical markers. These modules have been created and are feasible to use on the samples of blood.
The modules are prepared for advanced incorporation in just one lab-on-chip. By minimizing the size and linking the micofluidic and electronic functions of the technology, their accuracy and trustworthy character is enhanced in order to perform tests on sick people. The medical utilization of the lab-on-chip is going to be observed in order to see its similarities and differences compared to the existing methodologies used in the breast cancer treatments. This is going to be accomplished by a new investigation.
