# Immuno-electrochemical Detection and Characterization of Melanoma Circulating Cells

> **NIH VA I01** · WM S. MIDDLETON MEMORIAL VETERANS HOSP · 2024 · —

## Abstract

The incidence of malignant melanoma is increasing steadily for the past three decades and it is among the
leading causes of new cancer diagnoses in the US. Despite recent advances in targeted chemotherapy and
immunotherapy for treatment of melanoma, there are no durable treatments for this cancer. Cutaneous
melanoma can often be cured if diagnosed at early stages as a primary lesion in the skin. Survival rates decrease
dramatically with diagnosis of increasing stage (Stage II and III) primary cancer. Even within a given stage of the
early stage cancer, the survival rates are highly variable. Although majority of melanomas are diagnosed early
and excised when presented in the skin, a significant number of patients diagnosed with early invasive skin
lesions die from melanoma. Concerted efforts to identify and validate tissue-based biomarkers for prognosis
have yielded mixed results. There is a need to better define prognostic markers that can reliably identify patients
to assess, monitor and manage their risk of developing lethal metastatic disease.
 Circulating tumor cells (CTC) and/or tumor cell-derived macromolecules in peripheral blood are now
considered reliable indicators of the presence of metastatic tumor. Enumerating the CTCs in patients’ blood
sample is approved by US FDA for monitoring cancer before, during and after treatment. However, detection of
the rare CTC in the blood before the appearance of metastatic disease remains a challenge due to the low
sensitivity and lack of specificity of the currently available methods of CTC detection. We have developed a
highly sensitive and specific biosensor to detect melanoma cells based on their cell surface proteins. This
biosensor is readily adaptable to a multiplexed microfluidic device for sequential or parallel capture, detection
and isolation of melanoma CTC based on melanoma-specific cell surface protein biomarkers.
 The overall goal of the proposed research is to develop a sensitive and selective method to capture and
characterize CTC in patients to monitor and manage patients diagnosed with early stage melanoma. In this
project, we propose to employ a multiplexed microfluidic biosensing device to detect, enumerate, isolate and
characterize CTC in the blood of Veterans diagnosed with Stage I-III primary melanoma. The specific aims of
this project are:
Aim 1: Detection and capture of melanoma cells based on surface marker heterogeneity
 Using a panel of antibodies against melanoma cell surface antigens, we will optimize an immunosensor for
sensitive detection of primary and metastatic melanoma cells. We will employ cultured human primary and
metastatic melanoma cells spiked in normal blood and CTC in blood samples from Veterans with metastatic
melanoma.
Aim 2: Detection and characterization of CTC heterogeneity using multiplexed microfluidic immunosensor array
 We will integrate the immunosensor into a flow-through microfluidic platform for detection, capture and
isolation of CTC in blood...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10588857
- **Project number:** 1I01CX002393-01A2
- **Recipient organization:** WM S. MIDDLETON MEMORIAL VETERANS HOSP
- **Principal Investigator:** Vijayasaradhi Setaluri
- **Activity code:** I01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2023-10-01 → 2027-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10588857

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10588857, Immuno-electrochemical Detection and Characterization of Melanoma Circulating Cells (1I01CX002393-01A2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10588857. Licensed CC0.

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