Micropattern Effect on Breast Cancer Cells Behavior on Isotropically Etched Silicon Microenvironments

In this paper we are investigating three dimensional (3-D) silicon-based microenvironments as potential platforms for breast cancer diagnostics. We have developed isotropically etched microstructures with a wide range of geometrical patterns for this purpose. Our results indicate that with the etched surface ratio of ∼65%, it is possible to capture 80–90% of the cancer cells within each silicon chip. After treatment of the cells with mitomycin C (to block the cell growth) more number of the cells are trapped inside the etched features for longer cultures times (72 h) suggesting that there is a directed motility and attraction of the cells toward the etched cavities and by optimally designing the etched features, the proposed platforms can be potentially used for diagnostics purposes.