Design of a microfluidic chip for enrichment of circulating tumor cells

Identification and characterization of CTCs can be used as a tool for the study of cancer metastases. A novel design of microfluidic chip used for enrichment of circulating tumor cells is presented in this paper. An integration of DLD method and negative enrichment method were designed to improve the throughput and recovery rate while getting intact CTCs. The DLD stage is used to separate CTCs from blood cells preliminarily, and the negative enrichment stage is used to acquire purified CTCs. Both of them were simulated with COMSOL Multiphysics. Simulation results showed that triangular micro-posts have better performance in DLD stage, and wave structures could generate better disturbance effect than herringbone structures. This chip provides a potential approach with high throughput and purity for the enrichment of CTCs. © (2015) Trans Tech Publications, Switzerland.