A microfluidic platform for functional testing of cancer drugs on intact tumor slices.

A D Rodriguez, L F Horowitz, K Castro, H Kenerson, N Bhattacharjee, G Gandhe, A Raman, R J Monnat, R Yeung, R C Rostomily, A Folch

Lab on a chip 2020 May 07

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Present approaches to assess cancer treatments are often inaccurate, costly, and/or cumbersome. Functional testing platforms that use live tumor cells are a promising tool both for drug development and for identifying the optimal therapy for a given patient, i.e. precision oncology. However, current methods that utilize patient-derived cells from dissociated tissue typically lack the microenvironment of the tumor tissue and/or cannot inform on a timescale rapid enough to guide decisions for patient-specific therapy. We have developed a microfluidic platform that allows for multiplexed drug testing of intact tumor slices cultured on a porous membrane. The device is digitally-manufactured in a biocompatible thermoplastic by laser-cutting and solvent bonding. Here we describe the fabrication process in detail, we characterize the fluidic performance of the device, and demonstrate on-device drug-response testing with tumor slices from xenografts and from a patient colorectal tumor.

Citation

A D Rodriguez, L F Horowitz, K Castro, H Kenerson, N Bhattacharjee, G Gandhe, A Raman, R J Monnat, R Yeung, R C Rostomily, A Folch. A microfluidic platform for functional testing of cancer drugs on intact tumor slices. Lab on a chip. 2020 May 07;20(9):1658-1675