Massachussetts General-developed device monitors key step in development of tumor metastases

A microfluidic device developed at Massachusetts General Hospital may help study key steps in the process by which cancer cells break off from a primary tumor to invade other tissues and form metastases. Investigators describe a fundamental change in cellular characteristics that has been associated with the ability of tumor cells to migrate and invade other sites in the body. Therapies that target this process may be able to slow or halt tumor metastasis. "This device gives us a platform to be used in testing and comparing compounds to block or delay the epithelial-mesenchymal transition, potentially slowing the progression of cancer," says Daniel Irimia, MD, PhD, associate director of the BioMEMS Resource Center in the MGH Department of Surgery. Read more here.