Performance evaluation of a high-throughput separation system for circulating tumor cells based on microcavity array.

Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are widely known as useful biomarkers in the liquid biopsies of cancer patients. Although single-cell genetic analysis of CTCs is a promising diagnostic tool that can provide detailed clinical information for precision medicine, the capacity of single-CTC isolation for genetic analysis requires improvement. To overcome this problem, we previously developed a multiple single-cell encapsulation system for CTCs using hydrogel-encapsulation, which allowed for the high-throughput isolation of single CTCs. However, isolation of a single cell from adjacent cells remained difficult and often resulted in contamination by neighboring cells due to the limited resolution of the generated hydrogel. We developed a novel multiple single-cell encapsulation system equipped with a high magnification lens for high throughput and a more accurate single-cell encapsulation. The multiple single-cell encapsulation system has sufficient sensitivity to detect immune-stained CTCs, and could also generate a micro-scaled hydrogel that can isolate a single cell from adjacent cells within 10 µm, with high efficiency. The proposed system enables high throughput and accurate single-cell manipulation and genome amplification without contamination from neighboring cells.