Is lung cancer treatment working? This chip can tell from a blood draw

“Using an ultrasensitive graphene oxide microfluidic chip nanotechnology built with graphene oxide sheets, we [chemical engineers, University of Michigan] were able to demonstrate that CTCs [circulating tumor cells] can be specifically isolated and molecularly characterized to predict future progression in patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). We analyzed CTCs from 26 patients at six time points throughout the treatment course of chemoradiation followed by immune checkpoint inhibitor immunotherapy. We observed that CTCs decreased significantly during treatment, where a larger decrease in CTCs predicted a significantly longer progression-free survival time.”    MORE

Image Credit:   Michigan Engineering News