Cancer cells are very elusive cells. As they hide among billions of blood cells, they become incredibly difficult to find. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. But what if we try to remove the haystack first? This is the new approach by 3-D-printed cell traps; they remove the “hay” to expose the cancer cells.
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Trapping the white blood cells—which are about the size of cancer cells—and filtering out smaller red blood cells leaves behind the tumor cells, which could then be used to diagnose the disease, potentially provide early warning of recurrence and enable research into the cancer metastasis process. The work, led by researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology, could advance the goal of personalized cancer treatment by allowing rapid and low-cost separation of tumor cells circulating in the bloodstream.
More details about this approach over at PHYS.org.
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(Image Credit: Allison Carter, Georgia Tech)
Source: neatorama