Detection of CTCs from whole blood of lung cancer patients using the automated Liquid Scan

Blood contains a wealth of diverse tumor biomarkers, including circulating tumor cells (CTCs), extracellular vesicles (EVs), and cell free DNA (cfDNA) allowing us to advance development of technologies to aid in detection and management of cancer and other related diseases. Biomarkers released from tumor cells harbor important signatures of disease including mutations, copy number variations, methylation changes, and/or chromosomal rearrangements that can be used as biomarkers to monitor disease progression or to tailor individualized treatment options in this era of personalized medicine. We describe the use of the Liquid Scan, an automated liquid biopsy platform to interrogate lung cancer patient blood for CTCs, cfDNA and EVs.For CTC diagnostics, whole blood from patient sample is run through Biofluidica’s customized chips coated with cancer specific antibodies. CTCs bound to the chips were eluted live and used for standard screening tests and molecular characterization of the tumor. We were able to capture CTCs from all stages (I, II, III, IV) of the lung cancer patient blood samples using EpCAM antibodies coated on the chip surface. CTCs detected from Stage I patients using minimal blood samples (1 ml) suggests Biofluidica’s microfluidic chip technology can detect pre-symptomatic disease and early detection of residual disease or relapse. The automated Liquid Scan is also used for capture and isolation of cfDNA and EVs with different processing protocols, microfluidic chips and reagents. Whole blood or plasma is applied to the chip that contains 1.4 million diamond shaped posts. The specific biomarker is captured and released from the chip for analysis. Here we demonstrate the ability of the platform to efficiently capture cfDNA and EVs from cell lines and plasma from patient samples with minimal background resulting in the ability to further analyze these biomarkers for genetic mutations. As a measure of tumor burden a comparison is made on the relative abundance of circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) compared to background level of cfDNA originating from normal cells. Biofluidica’s Liquid Scan automated platform will help to provide excellent patient care that delivers high quality data suitable to assist in clinical decisions as per cancer stage, response to treatment and early detection. Biofluidica’s Liquid Scan can reduce expensive and painful biopsy procedures generally used in the current health care system. Citation Format: Rolf Muller, Sangeetha Purushotham, Paul Diaz, Alena Bartakova, Judy Muller-Cohn, Jerry Lu, Veronica Cheung, Roksolana Melnychuk, Jennifer Barber-Singh, Elizabeth Fabio, Hatim Husain, Malgorzata Witek, Maryam Zomorrodi, Mateusz Hupert, Steven Soper, Matt Jackson, Catherine Chen. Detection of CTCs from whole blood of lung cancer patients using the automated Liquid Scan [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 3984.