# Worm-Based Diagnosis Combining Microfluidics toward Early Cancer Screening

## TL;DR

This paper explores using C. elegans worms and microfluidics for non-invasive, early cancer screening with high sensitivity.

## Contribution

The paper reviews progress in combining C. elegans chemotaxis assays with microfluidics for automated cancer screening.

## Key findings

- C. elegans chemosensory systems show high sensitivity for early cancer diagnosis.
- Microfluidics improves automation and efficiency of worm-based cancer screening.
- Integration of microfluidic modules could lead to cost-effective large-scale cancer screening.

## Abstract

Early cancer diagnosis increases therapy efficiency and saves huge medical costs. Traditional blood-based cancer markers and endoscopy procedures demonstrate limited capability in the diagnosis. Reliable, non-invasive, and cost-effective methods are in high demand across the world. Worm-based diagnosis, utilizing the chemosensory neuronal system of C. elegans, emerges as a non-invasive approach for early cancer diagnosis with high sensitivity. It facilitates effectiveness in large-scale cancer screening for the foreseeable future. Here, we review the progress of a unique route of early cancer diagnosis based on the chemosensory neuronal system of C. elegans. We first introduce the basic procedures of the chemotaxis assay of C. elegans: synchronization, behavior assay, immobilization, and counting. Then, we review the progress of each procedure and the various cancer types for which this method has achieved early diagnosis. For each procedure, we list examples of microfluidics technologies that have improved the automation, throughput, and efficiency of each step or module. Finally, we envision that microfluidics technologies combined with the chemotaxis assay of C. elegans can lead to an automated, cost-effective, non-invasive early cancer screening technology, with the development of more mature microfluidic modules as well as systematic integration of functional modules.