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Tumor Discovery

ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLE
A new immunomagnetic microfluidic

device for characterizing EGFR mutations in
circulating tumor cells from patients with

non-small cell lung cancer

1,2
1
3
Nkeiruka O. Ogidi , Michael J. Lind , and John Greenman *
1 Centre for Biomedicine, University of Hull, Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom
2 Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Idi-araba,
Lagos state, Nigeria
3 Centre for Clinical Sciences, University of Hull, Kingston upon Hull, United Kingdom
(This article belongs to the Special Issue: New Developments in Lung Cancer Research, Diagnosis,
Treatment, and Prognosis)

Abstract

Incorporating precision oncology into cancer management has begun to improve
clinical outcomes. Accurate sampling techniques that detect molecular aberrations
are crucial for effective implementation. Circulating tumor cells (CTCs), derived
from primary or metastatic sites and present in the blood, are proposed as useful
*Corresponding author: diagnostic tools, though their use has been limited due to their rarity, especially
John Greenman in early-stage cancers. This study presents a novel immunomagnetic microfluidic
(j.greenman@hull.ac.uk) device that efficiently isolates CTCs for analyzing epidermal growth factor receptor
Citation: Ogidi NO, Lind (EGFR) mutations in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). The device
MJ, Greenman J. A new was designed and laser-cut from polymethylmethacrylate. Validation experiments
immunomagnetic microfluidic involved spiking PC-9 cells (an established lung cancer cell line containing GLU 746-
device for characterizing EGFR
mutations in circulating tumor ALA 750 deletion mutations in exon 19 of the EGFR gene) into media and isolating
cells from patients with non-small these cells. Exons 18 – 21 of EGFR were amplified using a polymerase chain reaction
cell lung cancer. Tumor Discov. to demonstrate the device’s rapid mutation detection capability. Next-generation
2024;3(4):3987.
doi: 10.36922/td.3987 sequencing was used to characterize these exons in a cohort of 38 NSCLC patients,
successfully isolating CTCs from all. Among these patients, 30 (79%) had EGFR
Received: June 19. 2024
mutations, with exon 19 showing the highest mutation rate (87%) and exon 21 the
Accepted: September 19, 2024 highest point mutation rate (23%). Our device captured CTCs effectively in <1 h,
Published Online: November 12, enabling mutation detection. Further studies are needed to assess the prognostic
2024 significance of these mutations, but this technology has potential applications in
Copyright: © 2024 Author(s). various solid tumors.
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution Keywords: Precision oncology; CTC; NSCLC; EGFR; Microfluidics; Immunomagnetic
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium,
provided the original work is
properly cited.
Publisher’s Note: AccScience 1. Introduction
Publishing remains neutral with Presently, the management of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) uses
regard to jurisdictional claims in
published maps and institutional knowledge of a patient’s mutational profile to guide the selection of therapy that is most
1
affiliations. likely to be effective. Over the past two decades, several clinical trials have reported

Volume 3 Issue 4 (2024) 1 doi: 10.36922/td.3987