Protruding Geometry Provides Potential Homing Sites of Circulating Tumor Cells

Circulating tumor cells preferentially arrest at protruding vascular geometries, including bifurcations, sharp corners and positively curved segments, shown using a multiscale microfluidic platform with live imaging and controlled perfusion. At these hotspots a viscoelastic polymer-like network assembles that captures CTCs and supports multicellular aggregation, stretching and recoiling even under laminar flow. Knockdown of DSG2 and ITGB3 reduces retention, pointing to a potential anti-metastasis strategy, with computational fluid dynamics linking hotspots to velocity and pressure perturbations.