Cancer is the second leading cause of death in the United States. Over 90% of these cancer deaths are due to the spread of cancer from the initial tumor to distant locations in the body during metastasis. The metastasizing cancer cells in the blood circulation are known as circulating tumor cells (CTCs). CTCs are responsible for secondary tumor formation. While solid tumors have been extensively studied, the dynamic nature of CTCs has been a challenge as they are under constant fluid shear stress. Another challenge in cancer is that of ineffective cancer treatment. Conventional cancer treatments mainly consist of chemotherapy regimen. However, chemotherapy drugs are largely tested under static 2D conditions, which does not resemble the CTC environment. Therefore, we created an in-vitro model for CTCs. Our CTC model allowed for physiological fluid shear stress to be applied on breast cancer cell lines. Breast cancer cells were treated with chemotherapy drug agents to test for drug resistance under our CTC model. By testing fluid shear stress on breast cancer cells, this will allow for a better model for CTCs as well as a better drug testing platform.

Fluid shear stress as a circulating tumor cell model for testing chemotherapy drug resistance in breast cancer cell lines

255th National Meeting (2018)

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