Chip Detects Lung Cancer Treatment Efficacy from Blood Draw

University of Michigan

By trapping and concentrating tiny numbers of cancer cells from blood samples, the device can identify whether a treatment is effective at the four-week mark

Two GO chips are laying on a benchtop lined with a paper towel. The chips resemble rectangular microscope slides encased in glass. The inlet line is red with blood, which has also flown into the chip and completely fills the top portion of the chips' internal compartments. Along the chip, a gradient of red to gold-gray shows that the blood has only progressed halfway through the chip. — As blood flows through the GO chips, cancer cells stick to antibodies embedded in the chip. The antibodies specifically target cancer cells, so the sample is not contaminated with other parts of the blood. Image credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering.

Study: Circulating tumor cells reveal early predictors of disease progression in patients with stage III NSCLC undergoing chemoradiation and immunotherapy (DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.113687)

Using a chip to process blood samples, doctors can monitor the amount of cancer cells in a patient's blood to determine how well a treatment is working by the fourth week, according to a new University of Michigan study.

Such data could allow clinicians to adapt cancer treatments to patients' needs and improve treatment outcomes.

Part of the GO chip manufacturing process takes place in Nagrath's lab. They start with silicon wafers, on which a tight array of gold dots have been etched into a rectangle pattern at the Lurie Nanofabrication Facility.

The gold attracts the graphene oxide, each sheet only a single layer of atoms thick, and the antibodies are attached to the graphene oxide. These antibodies are what allow the chips to trap cancer cells. Image credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering.

"Currently, there's typically a wait of weeks to months before we can fully assess the effectiveness of cancer treatment," said Shruti Jolly, professor of radiation oncology, associate chair of community practices at U-M and co-corresponding author of the study.

"However, with this chip, we may be able to sidestep prolonged, ineffective therapy and quickly pivot to alternatives, thus saving patients from needless side effects. This technique has the potential to shift cancer diagnostics, moving from a delayed single assessment to a more continuous surveillance and facilitating the delivery of personalized cancer treatment."

Today, clinicians use CT scans to see if a tumor shrank or grew, but only large changes in size are easily noticed. Tumor biopsies provide more exact information, but they can't be done frequently enough to get regular updates.

Bright purple, lightning-like plasma arcs in thin filaments from the tip of the metal wand onto the blue part of the chip, resembling a waterfall. The plasma stands in stark contrast with the dark background and illuminates the wand, which rises like a stem behind the arcs. — To attach the GO chips' covers, the engineers use a "corona wand," which creates a high-voltage electric current that heats air into plasma. The plasma adds an electric charge to the chip that forms a permanent bond with the materials on the chip cover. The result is a tight seal that doesn't allow any fluid to escape from the microscopic channels in the chip. Image credit: Brenda Ahearn, Michigan Engineering.

That's why many clinicians are turning to liquid biopsies, or tests that look for signs of cancer in the patient's blood, such as cancer cells that tumors have shed. Blood samples can be collected frequently, but they are only useful if the cells are present in high enough levels for biomedical instruments to detect.

Lung cancer is a particular problem. Other FDA-approved tools for detecting cancer cells in blood samples have proven ineffective for monitoring lung cancer treatments-likely because they targeted a single protein on the cells' surfaces that is less common in lung cancers, the researchers say.

"We were looking for more sensitive markers of cancer that we could use to closely monitor treatments," said Sunitha Nagrath, professor of chemical and biomedical engineering and one of the study's corresponding authors.

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By trapping and concentrating tiny numbers of cancer cells from blood samples, the device can identify whether a treatment is effective at the four-week mark

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