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A state of the art micro-fluidic chip can quantitate the cancer-cell killing effectiveness of chemotherapeutic agents against one of the deadliest brain cancers, glioblastoma. So say Northwestern University neurosurgical oncologists working in collaboration with University of Michigan bioengineers in a Nature Communications published tudy.

Leet’s talks a look at how this chip strategy works.  When the albumin-bound paclitaxel chemotherapeutic agent penetrates the blood-brain barrier with the help of focused ultrasound and kills glioblastoma tumor cells, the dying cells release extracellular vesicles and particles into the bloodstream.  The novel microchip, named the GlioExoChip, capably captures these released particles permitting their quantitation and the estimation of chemotherapeutic killing effectiveness after each drug infusion.

This technique provides a near-immediate estimation of treatment effectiveness with only a blood draw.  Compare this with the need to wait months to look for tumor shrinkage on MR imaging.  If any given agent is effective, treatment continues. If not, another agent is chosen.

Once the precision and specificity of this technique is confirmed in larger clinical studies, the GlioExoChip will become available for routine use.

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-65681-4

#glioblastoma #microfluidics #extracellularparticles #chemotherapy