Optofluidic Device Quantifies CTCs in Blood

By LabMedica International staff writers
Posted on 25 Jul 2017

Image: The device employs two systems in miniature: a flow system and an optical system. The ratio of the two systems provides a quantitative indication about how the cancer is progressing (Photo courtesy of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili).

Image: The device employs two systems in miniature: a flow system and an optical system. The ratio of the two systems provides a quantitative indication about how the cancer is progressing (Photo courtesy of the Universitat Rovira i Virgili).

Researchers have developed a portable device that rapidly detects and counts circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in blood samples. It can help provide early diagnosis and help assess a patient’s level of health with convenient, inexpensive, effective testing for monitoring patients with cancer.

These patients need to be constantly monitored during treatment to assess disease progression, particularly if their cancer has metastasized. Monitoring is currently done using imaging techniques and biopsies, which are invasive and not always possible. In contrast, the new device is highly sensitive and requires no surgery or treatment involving radiation, thus improving patient quality of life.

The device was developed by a team of researchers and clinicians led by Universitat Rovira i Virgili (Tarragona, Catalonia, Spain) professors Francesc Díaz, Ramon Álvarez Puebla, and Jaume Masons and by HM Torrelodones University Hospital’s Dr. Eduardo García–Rico. It counts the number of tumor cells in a blood sample in real time, and has been successfully tested on patients in various stages of breast cancer. It can be adapted for use to determine the presence of other tumors by analyzing for different antibodies in the blood sample.

The patented device has been licensed for commercialization to Medcom Science, a company engaged in research and development of technologies for diagnosing and treating cancer.

The study, by Pedrol E et al, was published June 16, 2017, in the journal Scientific Reports.

Related Links:
Universitat Rovira i Virgili

Visit expo >

Gold Member

Collection and Transport System

PurSafe Plus®

POC Helicobacter Pylori Test Kit
Hepy Urease Test

6 Part Hematology Analyzer with RET + IPF

Mispa HX 88

Sample Transportation System

Tempus1800 Necto

Latest Technology News

Channels

Clinical Chemistry

view channel

Image: The ARi-FL fluorescent probe offers a clearer view of tumor behavior and treatment resistance (J. Med. Chem. 2025, 68, 15, 15812-15827)

Chemical Imaging Probe Could Track and Treat Prostate Cancer

Prostate cancer remains a leading cause of illness and death among men, with many patients eventually developing resistance to standard hormone-blocking therapies. These drugs often lose effectiveness... Read more

Mismatch Between Two Common Kidney Function Tests Indicates Serious Health Problems

Creatinine has long been the standard for measuring kidney filtration, while cystatin C — a protein produced by all human cells — has been recommended as a complementary marker because it is influenced... Read more

Image: Schematic diagram of esophageal cancer cell identification research process (Photo courtesy of GE Dianlong)

VOCs Show Promise for Early Multi-Cancer Detection

Early cancer detection is critical to improving survival rates, but most current screening methods focus on individual cancer types and often involve invasive procedures. This makes it difficult to identify... Read more

Image: Portable Raman spectroscopy could help detect kidney disease at POC (Photo courtesy of Shutterstock)

Portable Raman Spectroscopy Offers Cost-Effective Kidney Disease Diagnosis at POC

Kidney disease is typically diagnosed through blood or urine tests, often when patients present with symptoms such as blood in urine, shortness of breath, or weight loss. While these tests are common,... Read more

Molecular Diagnostics

view channel

Simple Urine Test to Revolutionize Bladder Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

Bladder cancer is one of the most common and deadly urological cancers and is marked by a high rate of recurrence. Diagnosis and follow-up still rely heavily on invasive cystoscopy or urine cytology, which... Read more

Image: FBLN5 detection in human hepatic stellate cells could act as an early warning sign of liver damage (Photo courtesy of Osaka Metropolitan University)

Blood Test to Enable Earlier and Simpler Detection of Liver Fibrosis

Persistent liver damage caused by alcohol misuse or viral infections can trigger liver fibrosis, a condition in which healthy tissue is gradually replaced by collagen fibers. Even after successful treatment... Read more

Genetic Marker to Help Children with T-Cell Leukemia Avoid Unnecessary Chemotherapy

About 400 children in the UK are diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) each year, with roughly 15% presenting with a more aggressive T-ALL subtype. While the standard approach is a four-week... Read more

Four-Gene Blood Test Rules Out Bacterial Lung Infection

Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) are among the most common reasons for antibiotic prescriptions, yet distinguishing bacterial infections from viral ones remains notoriously difficult.... Read more

Hematology

view channel

Platelet Activity Blood Test in Middle Age Could Identify Early Alzheimer’s Risk

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease remains one of the biggest unmet needs in neurology, particularly because the biological changes underlying the disorder begin decades before memory symptoms appear.... Read more

Image: Sickle cell disease patients with higher levels of RMVs, AMVs, and EMVs were found to have more severe disease (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Microvesicles Measurement Could Detect Vascular Injury in Sickle Cell Disease Patients

Assessing disease severity in sickle cell disease (SCD) remains challenging, especially when trying to predict hemolysis, vascular injury, and risk of complications such as vaso-occlusive crises.... Read more

ADLM’s New Coagulation Testing Guidance to Improve Care for Patients on Blood Thinners

Direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are one of the most common types of blood thinners. Patients take them to prevent a host of complications that could arise from blood clotting, including stroke, deep... Read more

Viscoelastic Testing Could Improve Treatment of Maternal Hemorrhage

Postpartum hemorrhage, severe bleeding after childbirth, remains one of the leading causes of maternal mortality worldwide, yet many of these deaths are preventable. Standard care can be hindered by delays... Read more

Microbiology

view channel

Image: The rapid sepsis test detected nearly three times more bloodstream infections than conventional blood cultures (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

Rapid Diagnostic Test Matches Gold Standard for Sepsis Detection

Sepsis kills 11 million people worldwide every year and generates massive healthcare costs. In the USA and Europe alone, sepsis accounts for USD 100 billion in annual hospitalization expenses.... Read more

Rapid POC Tuberculosis Test Provides Results Within 15 Minutes

Tuberculosis remains one of the world’s deadliest infectious diseases, and reducing new cases depends on identifying individuals with latent infection before it progresses. Current diagnostic tools often... Read more

Rapid Assay Identifies Bloodstream Infection Pathogens Directly from Patient Samples

Bloodstream infections in sepsis progress quickly and demand rapid, precise diagnosis. Current blood-culture methods often take one to five days to identify the pathogen, leaving clinicians to treat blindly... Read more

Blood-Based Molecular Signatures to Enable Rapid EPTB Diagnosis

Extrapulmonary tuberculosis (EPTB) remains difficult to diagnose and treat because it spreads beyond the lungs and lacks easily accessible biomarkers. Despite TB infecting 10 million people yearly, the... Read more

Pathology

view channel

Image: The new device can be precisely tuned to sort cells across a range of sizes (Photo courtesy of Institute of Science Tokyo)

Tunable Cell-Sorting Device Holds Potential for Multiple Biomedical Applications

Isolating rare cancer cells from blood is essential for diagnosing metastasis and guiding treatment decisions, but remains technically challenging. Many existing techniques struggle to balance accuracy,... Read more

AI Tool Outperforms Doctors in Spotting Blood Cell Abnormalities

Diagnosing blood disorders depends on recognizing subtle abnormalities in cell size, shape, and structure, yet this process is slow, subjective, and requires years of expert training. Even specialists... Read more

Image: SMMILe enables accurate spatial quantification in digital pathology using multiple-instance learning (Gao, Z et al. Nature Cancer, 2025; DOI: 10.1038/s43018-025-01060-8)

AI Tool Rapidly Analyzes Complex Cancer Images for Personalized Treatment

Complex digital biopsy images that typically take an expert pathologist up to 20 minutes to assess can now be analyzed in about one minute using a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool. The technology... Read more

Diagnostic Technology Performs Rapid Biofluid Analysis Using Single Droplet

Diagnosing disease typically requires milliliters of blood drawn at clinics, depending on needles, laboratory infrastructure, and trained personnel. This process is often painful, resource-intensive, and... Read more

Technology

view channel

Artificial Intelligence Model Could Accelerate Rare Disease Diagnosis

Identifying which genetic variants actually cause disease remains one of the biggest challenges in genomic medicine. Each person carries tens of thousands of DNA changes, yet only a few meaningfully alter... Read more

Image: The technology can diagnose head and neck cancer early with a drop of saliva (Photo courtesy of Adobe Stock)

AI Saliva Sensor Enables Early Detection of Head and Neck Cancer

Early detection of head and neck cancer remains difficult because the disease produces few or no symptoms in its earliest stages, and lesions often lie deep within the head or neck, where biopsy or endoscopy... Read more

Image: The screen-printed electrochemical sensor (Photo courtesy of UT Dallas)

AI-Powered Biosensor Technology to Enable Breath Test for Lung Cancer Detection

Detecting lung cancer early remains one of the biggest challenges in oncology, largely because current tools are invasive, expensive, or unable to identify the disease in its earliest phases.... Read more

AI Model Achieves Breakthrough Accuracy in Ovarian Cancer Detection

Early diagnosis of ovarian cancer remains one of the toughest challenges in women’s health. Traditional tools such as the Risk of Ovarian Malignancy Algorithm (ROMA) can struggle to distinguish between... Read more

Industry

view channel

Abbott Acquires Cancer-Screening Company Exact Sciences

Abbott (Abbott Park, IL, USA) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Exact Sciences (Madison, WI, USA), enabling it to enter and lead in fast-growing cancer diagnostics segments.... Read more

$Image: Freenome will evaluate Roche\'s forthcoming SBX technology for future development applications (Photo courtesy of Roche)$

Roche and Freenome Collaborate to Develop Cancer Screening Tests

Roche (Basel, Switzerland) and Freenome (Brisbane, CA, USA have entered into a strategic collaboration to commercialize Freenome's cancer screening technology in international markets.... Read more

Co-Diagnostics Forms New Business Unit to Develop AI-Powered Diagnostics

Co-Diagnostics, Inc. (Salt Lake City, UT, USA) has formed a new artificial intelligence (AI) business unit to integrate the company's existing and planned AI applications into its Co-Dx Primer Ai platform.... Read more

Qiagen Acquires Single-Cell Omics Firm Parse Biosciences

QIAGEN (Venlo, Netherlands) has entered into a definitive agreement to fully acquire Parse Biosciences (Seattle, WA, USA), a provider of scalable, instrument-free solutions for single-cell research.... Read more