Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have developed a new device which could monitor the metastasis of breast cancer cells. This finding allows scientists to watch and record the behaviour of cancer cells as they burrow through tissue, infiltrate blood vessels, and enter the blood stream to travel quickly and easily through the body. The study was published in Cancer Research.

More than 90 percent of cancer-related deaths are caused by metastatic cancer cells spreading around the body, however until now, scientists haven’t been able to get a good, clear look at this complicated process.

In this study, A special nutrient-rich solution was injected into the chip and made to flow through the artificial blood vessel. Then, the researchers inserted individual and clustered human breast cancer cells into the artificial tissue. The breast cancer cells were labelled with fluorescent tags so they could be easily tracked and recorded. In the tests, the artificial tissues acted like human tissue does in an actual cancer patient, which could be monitored.

The device offered such a detailed view for the scientists to observe a single cancer cell as it located a weak spot in the lining of the blood vessel, exerted enough pressure on it to break through, and then squeezed itself in far enough to be taken up by the bloodstream. Another advantage is that the cancer migration process can be viewed countless times without invasive procedures being carried out on actual cancer patients.

Generally, this device allows researchers to look at the major steps of metastasis as well as to test different treatment strategies at relatively fast pace. If one way to stop one of these steps in the metastatic is cascaded, a new strategy may be found to slow down or even the spread of cancer.