A microfluidic platform for functional testing of cancer drugs on intact tumor slices. Academic Article uri icon

Overview

abstract

  • Present approaches to assess cancer treatments are often inaccurate, costly, and/or cumbersome. Functional testing platforms that use live tumor cells are a promising tool both for drug development and for identifying the optimal therapy for a given patient, i.e. precision oncology. However, current methods that utilize patient-derived cells from dissociated tissue typically lack the microenvironment of the tumor tissue and/or cannot inform on a timescale rapid enough to guide decisions for patient-specific therapy. We have developed a microfluidic platform that allows for multiplexed drug testing of intact tumor slices cultured on a porous membrane. The device is digitally-manufactured in a biocompatible thermoplastic by laser-cutting and solvent bonding. Here we describe the fabrication process in detail, we characterize the fluidic performance of the device, and demonstrate on-device drug-response testing with tumor slices from xenografts and from a patient colorectal tumor.

publication date

  • April 9, 2020

Research

keywords

  • Antineoplastic Agents
  • Doxorubicin
  • Lab-On-A-Chip Devices

Identity

PubMed Central ID

  • PMC7679198

Scopus Document Identifier

  • 85084270793

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

  • 10.1038/nm.4389

PubMed ID

  • 32270149

Additional Document Info

volume

  • 20

issue

  • 9