Digital Holographic Microscopy for Morphology-based Enrichment of Circulating Tumour Cells

在英国，癌症是第二大常见死因，也是经济成本最高的死因。超过90%的死亡是在转移之后发生的，转移是在体内形成继发性肿瘤的地方。不幸的是，症状通常在转移后出现，到那时治疗往往无效。我们设计了一种技术，在继发性肿瘤建立之前，从血液样本中识别和丰富超罕见的肿瘤细胞。这将使更早和更知情的临床决策，并研究更有效的治疗方法。我们新颖的设计是可分配和负担得起的，因此社会上的很大一部分人都能享受到好处。

In the UK, cancer is the second most common cause of death and is the cause of death that is most costly to the economy. Over 90% of deaths follow metastasis, where secondary tumours are established in the body. Unfortunately, symptoms are usually experienced after metastasis, by which time treatments are often ineffective.We have designed a technology to identify and enrich ultra-rare tumour cells from a blood sample, before secondary tumours are established. This will enable earlier and better-informed clinical decisions, and research into more effective treatments. Our novel design is distributable and affordable such that the benefits will be accessible to a large proportion of society.