ABSTRACT
One purpose of this chapter is to describe the basic concepts and terminology of cancer to provide an introduction to bioengineers that are developing technologies for cancer detection and diagnostics. This chapter also includes a very general introduction of biosensors. Cancers are complex diseases, so our aim is to give an overview of the major issues that might impact biosensor technology development. The main elements required to adapt biosensors for cancer clinical testing are summarized in Figure 1.1. To develop cancer biosensor technology, cancer biomarkers identied from basic and clinical research and from genomic and proteomic analyses must be rst validated. Identication of high-sensitivity, highspecicity biomarkers is the greatest challenge for cancer diagnostics. A key goal of this chapter is to
1.3.5 Analysis of Clinical Samples ............................................................................................ 23 1.3.5.1 Sample Preparation and Cancer Cell Enrichment ............................................. 23 1.3.5.2 Laser Capture Microdissection .......................................................................... 24 1.3.5.3 Other Cancer Enrichment Methods in Nondissected Material ......................... 24 1.3.5.4 Methods for Obtaining Tissue Samples ............................................................. 24
1.4 Biosensor Technologies for Cancer Analysis ................................................................................. 25 1.4.1 Current Biosensor Technologies ........................................................................................ 25
1.4.1.1 Indirect Detection Transducers .......................................................................... 27 1.4.2 Emerging Technologies ..................................................................................................... 27 1.4.3 Challenges in Moving Biosensors to Point-of-Care Cancer Testing ................................. 28
1.5 Summary ........................................................................................................................................ 29 References ................................................................................................................................................ 29
address the issues of cancer biology which can lead to discovery of new cancer biomarkers. Ligands and probes are needed for the identication of validated biomarkers which can be combined with transducers to produce biosensors for cancer-related clinical testing. Other important elements are sample preparation and the “technical” format for testing. As shown in Figure 1.1, point-of-care cancer testing requires integration and automation of the technology as well as development of appropriate sample preparation methods.
