Detection of circulating sarcoma tumor cells using a microfluidic chip-type cell sorter

Analyses of circulating tumor cells have been shown to be effective for the detection of cancer relapse and prognosis prediction. However, research regarding its utility in sarcoma remains scarce. In this study, the microfluidic chip-type cell sorter On-chip Sort was used to construct a system for detecting circulating sarcoma cells (CSCs). A pilot study using normal fibroblast or sarcoma cell lines was designed to establish a reliable protocol to separate CSCs by On-chip Sort. A single CSC was separated and recovered from 10 ml of whole blood from a patient with locally advanced myxofibrosarcoma. The nonsynonymous mutation for KMT2B p.Ile2602Val identified in the formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor sample was also confirmed in the CSC. Use of the developed protocol may allow CSCs to become an early predictor for metastasis and recurrence of sarcoma. Further, it may aid in optimizing post-operative therapies for patients without metastasis.