ArticleJournal of Cancer2026
Microfluidic Immunomagnetic Capture of Circulating Tumor Cells via On-Bead Antibody Conjugation.
Article in Journal of Cancer, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Microfluidic immunomagnetic platforms have been widely explored for circulating tumor cell (CTC) enrichment; however, operational complexity, unstable flow control, and limited real-time observation remain practical challenges for routine implementation. In this study, we developed an integrated microfluidic chip system for EpCAM-based immunomagnetic enrichment of tumor cells using antibody-functionalized magnetic beads. The platform incorporates a gas-liquid separation structure, pressure-regulated flow control, and a transparent chip design that enables real-time microscopic observation of bead-cell interactions during capture. Biotin loading on streptavidin-coated beads was optimized, with surface saturation observed at 6 nmol. Flow-rate optimization identified 0.4 μL/s as the selected flow rate, balancing capture efficiency and cell-bead interaction time. In whole-blood spike-in experiments using MCF-7 cells, the platform achieved recovery efficiencies ranging from approximately 57% to 91%, depending on the input cell number. Cells with Hoechst⁺/CD326⁺/CD45⁻ phenotypes were also observed in patient-derived blood samples, supporting the feasibility of detecting putative CTCs in clinical specimens. This study positions the system as an engineering-integrated, real-time-observable platform for CTC enrichment. Further validation using larger clinical cohorts, multi-marker capture strategies, quantitative purity analysis, and cell viability assays will be required before translational application.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.