Use of an integrated microfluidic chip for analysis of cell motility and prediction and prognosis of patient survival

A method for prognosing a brain tumor recurrence in a subject, the method comprising:

• a) obtaining at least one tumor cell or population of tumor cells from the brain tumor of the subject, and placing the at least one tumor cell or population of the tumor cells from the brain tumor in a cell suspension;
• b) incubating the tumor cells in the cell suspension for a period time under sufficient conditions that allow the tumor cells in the cell suspension to seed at an inlet portion of a migratory channel of an integrative microfluidic apparatus;
• c) imaging, by an imaging system, the tumor cells in the integrative microfluidic apparatus for a period of time, wherein at least one migratory tumor cell of the tumor cells in the cell suspension migrates through the migratory channel in the presence of a buffer;
• d) determining a respective tumor cell of the cell suspension is invasive when the respective tumor cell migrates through the migratory channel of the integrative microfluidic apparatus, wherein the migratory channel comprises:
• a body segment having sufficiently reduced dimensions so as to allow only one migratory tumor cell of the at least one tumor cell to enter into a first end of the migratory channel at a time, and
• a first branch and a second branch extending from a second end of the body segment, wherein the first branch and the second branch each have respective widths, and wherein the width of the first branch is different than the width of the second branch, wherein the second end of the body segment and the first and second branches meet at the bifurcation point of the migratory channel, and wherein the respective migratory tumor cell migrates through the migratory channel by entering the first end of the migratory channel and passing through the bifurcation point of the migratory channel to enter the first branch or the second branch;
• and
• e) identifying the tumor of the subject as having a high risk of recurrence when the proportion of invasive cells is greater than 5-25% of the tumor cells in the cell suspension.