Development of a vertical bubble acoustic microfluidic sputum liquefier for improved cancer cell detection

The detection of cancer in the lower respiratory tract is often performed using sputum smears, which is a convenient method. However, due to its high viscosity, it can be difficult to concentrate target cancer cells from sputum. To improve sputum smear and cancer cell detection, it is highly desirable to have efficient sputum liquefaction approaches. Our study focused on the development of a vertical bubble acoustic microfluidic sputum liquefier that can mix sputum and lysis buffer in a harmless and efficient manner. The system can automatically process sputum samples with a wide range of viscosities without vortexing. Moreover, well-liquefied sputum samples can easily concentrate cancer cells, leading to improved efficiency and accuracy of diagnosis compared to the direct smear method. We expect that our device will increase the positive rate of pathological examination of sputum smears in patients with lung cancer in the future.