Will there be a relapse?
A group of researchers from the University of California, San Diego has created a device that detects "sticky" cancer cells, helping to improve the prognostic assessment of patients' tumors. The device consists of a microfluidic chamber that sorts cells according to their physical ability to adhere to the environment.
The researchers found that weakly adhering cells migrate and penetrate into other tissues more often than strongly adhering cells from the same tumor. In addition, genes that are active in weakly adhering cells increase the likelihood of cancer recurrence by five times.
This work is aimed at finding a solution to a long-standing problem in the field of cancer research: the discovery of universal biological markers to identify the most aggressive cells in tumors.
The developed device will help to carry out a more accurate assessment of the probability of tumor recurrence. Knowing the risk of relapse, clinicians will be able to better adapt the treatment of this patient.
Source: David Baillot / UC San Diego Jacobs School of Engineering.
The microfluidic device consists of a chamber covered with adhesive proteins. Cancer cells are placed in this chamber and after some time stick to the walls. After that, the fluid is pushed through to separate the cells: the faster the fluid moves, the higher the shear stress that the cancer cells experience. Cells that separate from adhesive proteins at a certain shear stress can be collected and analyzed. Cells separating at a lower shear stress were classified as weakly adhering, and cells collected at higher shear stresses were classified as strongly adhering.
The analysis led the group to an interesting discovery: weakly adhering cells have unique genetic characteristics that allow them to migrate and penetrate into healthy tissues faster. Using the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) database, the researchers found that cancer patients with a high level of activity of genes responsible for weak adhesion of cancer cells, tumor recurrence occurred earlier and more often.
Based on these results, the researchers plan to plant weakly adhering cancer cells in mice in tumors to find out if they really metastasize faster and more often. If the model shows that these cells really shorten the time without relapse, large clinical trials will begin on patients with solid tumors.
The researchers hope that in the future, clinicians will use a new microfluidic device to study tumor samples taken from patients in order to assess the likelihood of metastasis and, if necessary, correct treatment in a timely manner.
Article P.Beri et al. Cell adhesion serves as a biophysical marker for metastatic potential published in the journal Cancer Research.
Aminat Adzhieva, portal "Eternal Youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru Based on UC San Diego: Assessing 'stickiness' of tumor cells could improve cancer prognosis.