Brachytherapy on-a-chip: a clinically-relevant approach for radiotherapy testing in 3d biology.

We describe the first microfluidic device for testing of brachytherapy (BT), with applications in translational cancer research. Our PDMS-made BT-on-chip system allows highly precise manual insertion of clinical BT seeds, reliable dose calculation using standard clinically-used TG-43 formalism and easy culture of naturally hypoxic spheroids in less than 3 days, thereby increasing the translational potential of the device. As the BT-on-chip platform is designed to be versatile, we showcase three different gold-standard post-irradiation bioassays and recapitulate, for the first time on-chip, key clinical observations such as dose rate effect and hypoxia-induced radioresistance.

Cell Death Analysis in Cancer Spheroids from a Microfluidic Device.

Microfluidic technology facilitates the generation of 3D spheroids from cancer cells, a more suitable model for preclinical therapeutic studies. This system opens the possibility to test many drugs combination at a low cost. Here we describe the use of microfluidic devices for cytotoxicity evaluation on cancer spheroids for the discovery of drugs that could be used in combination with radiotherapy.

A cadaveric perfused model with antegrade arteriovenous pulsatile circulation: a new tool for teaching endovascular skills.

Background: The benefits of using cadaveric humans in surgical training are well documented, and knowledge of the latest endovascular techniques is essential in the daily practice of vascular surgeons. Our study explores the feasibility of an affordable human cadaveric model with pulsatile and heated antegrade perfusion for reliable and reproducible endovascular or surgical simulation.

Methods: We undertook cannulation of 7 human cadavers embalmed in a saturated salt solution to create a left-to-right central perfusion with a heated solution, from the ascending thoracic aorta to the right atrium.

Radiotherapy on-chip: microfluidics for translational radiation oncology.

The clinical importance of radiotherapy in the treatment of cancer patients justifies the development and use of research tools at the fundamental, pre-clinical, and ultimately clinical levels, to investigate their toxicities and synergies with systemic agents on relevant biological samples. Although microfluidics has prompted a paradigm shift in drug discovery in the past two decades, it appears to have yet to translate to radiotherapy research. However, the materials, dimensions, design versatility and multiplexing capabilities of microfluidic devices make them well-suited to a variety of studies involving radiation physics, radiobiology and radiotherapy.

Hypoxic Jumbo Spheroids On-A-Chip (HOnAChip): Insights into Treatment Efficacy.

Hypoxia is a key characteristic of the tumor microenvironment, too rarely considered during drug development due to the lack of a user-friendly method to culture naturally hypoxic 3D tumor models. In this study, we used soft lithography to engineer a microfluidic platform allowing the culture of up to 240 naturally hypoxic tumor spheroids within an 80 mm by 82.5 mm chip.

X-ray on chip: Quantifying therapeutic synergies between radiotherapy and anticancer drugs using soft tissue sarcoma tumor spheroids.

Purpose: Radioresistance, tumor microenvironment, and normal tissue toxicity from radiation limit the efficacy of radiotherapy in treating cancers. These challenges can be tackled by the discovery of new radiosensitizing and radioprotecting agents aimed at increasing the therapeutic efficacy of radiotherapy. The goal of this work was to develop a miniaturized microfluidic platform for the discovery of drugs that could be used in combination with radiotherapy.