Coupling Micro-Physiological Systems and Biosensors for Improving Cancer Biomarkers Detection

Early cancer detection is still a major clinical challenge. The development of innovative and noninvasive screening approaches for the detection of predictive biomarkers indicating the stage of the disease could save many lives. Traditional in vitro and in vivo models are not adequate to copycat the native tumor microenvironment and for the discovery of new biomarkers. Recent advances in microfluidics, biosensors, and 3D cell biology speed up the development of micro-physiological bioengineered systems that improve the discovery of new potential cancer biomarkers. This can accelerate the individualization of cancer treatments leading to precision medicine-oriented approaches that could improve patient prognosis. For this reason, it is necessary to develop point-of-care diagnostic tools that can be user-friendly, miniaturized, and easily translated into clinical practice. This chapter describes how far this new generation of cutting-edge technologies, such as microfluidics, label-free detection systems, and molecular diagnostics, are from being applied in the current clinical practice.