Abstract Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs), which are rare types of cancer cells, detach from a primary tumor and enter the bloodstream, leading to the formation of metastatic cancer. One of the most effective methods to detect and separate CTCs from the bloodstream is inertial focusing using microfluidic devices. The present work proposed a novel microscale device for continuous flow separation of two types of CTC from blood cells. The MCF-7 (human breast cancer) cells and HeLa (human epithelial cervical cancer) cells, along with blood cells, enter a single-loop spiral microchannel. The cancer cells are separated at the outlet of the channel from each other and the white blood cells (WBCs) and red blood cells (RBCs) due to the inertial force. Different inlet flows of 38–150 ml/h corresponding to the Reynolds numbers of 30–120 are investigated to achieve the maximum separation efficiency of the device. Three-dimensional simulations are performed using the COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 software and finite element method. It is demonstrated that the separation efficiency reaches 100% over a range of Reynolds numbers from 90 to 110 (throughput range of 113–139 ml/h).

中文翻译：

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CTC在新型螺旋微通道中的惯性聚焦

摘要 循环肿瘤细胞 (CTC) 是一种罕见的癌细胞，从原发肿瘤脱离并进入血液，导致转移性癌症的形成。从血流中检测和分离 CTC 的最有效方法之一是使用微流体装置进行惯性聚焦。目前的工作提出了一种新型微型装置，用于从血细胞中连续流动分离两种类型的 CTC。MCF-7（人乳腺癌）细胞和 HeLa（人宫颈上皮癌）细胞与血细胞一起进入一个单环螺旋微通道。由于惯性力，癌细胞在通道的出口处彼此分离，并且白细胞 (WBC) 和红细胞 (RBC) 彼此分离。研究了对应于 30-120 雷诺数的 38-150 ml/h 不同入口流量，以实现设备的最大分离效率。使用 COMSOL Multiphysics 5.5 软件和有限元方法进行三维仿真。结果表明，在雷诺数从 90 到 110 的范围内（通量范围为 113-139 ml/h），分离效率达到 100%。