High Flow Rate Device for Circulating Tumor Cell Capture

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) were captured at high flow rates with a high recovery rate using a small footprint disposable polymer micro device. A new concept of target cell capture was introduced to break through the barriers limiting current approaches. Several potential designs were parametrically simulated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to achieve the best performance. The high flow rate device (HFRD) was fabricated in polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) based on simulation results. Antibodies (anti-EpCAM) were immobilized on the PMMA device with surface treatments including UV modification and amine functionalization. A novel rare cell sample preparation method was established to provide an exact number of initial target cells to accurately test the rare cell performance. The precisely prepared samples of rare target tumor cells were spiked in a solution containing human erythrocytes, with a 40% hematocrit. The mean recovery rate with the HFRD was 85% at a 750 μL/min flow rate.