癌症為連續第33年高居台灣十大死因首位，平均每100人就有28人死於癌症，癌症在治療上的高困難度是因為癌細胞的轉移所導致。在轉移的過程中會產生「循環腫瘤細胞」（Circulating Tumor Cell, CTC）。循環腫瘤細胞是指從原生腫瘤或轉移性腫瘤脫離並進入血液循環系統的腫瘤細胞。研究中顯示循環腫瘤細胞的多寡與病人的存活率和病情的預測有正相關，因此偵測和計數循環腫瘤細胞是對於癌症治療相當重要的，特別是對早期癌症轉移和接受藥物治療長期追蹤的病人。
本論文中所使用的觀測晶片，是在載玻片上以SU-8做出結構，利用流體的特性，使懸浮細胞液內的細胞受液體流動的拉力而產生單層緊密排列的自組裝排列。另外，本論文中所使用的染色晶片，是使用高分子材料 Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) 上做出薄膜以及流道結構，PDMS 薄膜上含有孔洞陣列，用來乘載細胞液與螢光染劑。實驗室與台北榮民總醫院合作取得大腸癌第四期病患的血液檢體，未來設計的實驗流程為經過血液分離前處理後，將檢體放入染色晶片中，利用流體擴散的方式，使薄膜上層細胞液內多餘的螢光染劑因濃度差而擴散至底層流道，完成染色標定。將檢體放入觀測晶片中，利用重力和側向拉力的影響，在觀測區域形成二維陣列緊密排列。以螢光顯微鏡觀測循環腫瘤細胞並計算其數量再和流式細胞儀的結果對比。
除了能自組裝產生單層緊密的排列，也能在晶片上完成染色的程序，使檢測能更加快速、便利。

High degree of difficulty in the treatment of cancer is due to cancer metastasis. In the transfer process, it will produce "circulating tumor cells" (Circulating Tumor Cell, CTC). Studies show the amount of circulating tumor cells is correlated to probability of survival of patient.
As the number of CTCs is quite few, we expect to undergo a gentle way in detection process in order not to lose too many CTCs during the sample preparation process. In the traditional way of staining process by mixing and centrifugation procedures, not only a long process (1.5 hours for 3 dyes) is usually required but also the centrifugation force is harmful for cell viability. To solve this issue, a Three-Dimensional Microwell Perfusion-Array is designed in this study to perform gentle fluorescence-removal process by diffusion-based flow processes on CTCs and WBCs without centrifuging. In this study, clinical whole blood samples from three VI TNM stage cancer patients were tested on SACA chips [1] after pre-centrifuging out erythrocytes and staining.

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