Microfluidic sample preparation of pleural effusions for cytodiagnostics

Pleural effusions - fluids that build up surrounding the lungs - can harbor malignant cells which are important to identify for diagnosis of cancer. However, rare malignant cells may lead to misleading diagnoses and a large background of leukocytes can prevent accurate identification of mutations of interest for targeted anti-cancer therapies. We developed a miniaturized microfluidic system that employs microscale vortices for the size-based isolation of malignant cancer cells and mesothelial cells. By processing mL volumes of pleural effusions and enriching target cells over a background of blood cells, we replace the traditional centrifugation step in the clinical lab. We demonstrate higher purity in 100% of the samples (n=30) where cells are made readily available for immunolabeling, standard cytology analysis and molecular analysis.