Nanomaterial-based microfluidic systems for cancer biomarker detection: Recent applications and future perspectives

Detecting cancer biomarkers (e.g., circulating tumor cells, extracellular vehicles, nucleic acids, and protein biomarkers) is vital for risk assessment and early diagnosis. Nanomaterial-based microfluidic devices have recently demonstrated great potential in fast, sensitive, selective detection of cancer biomarkers. This review aims to summarize the advances in a wide range of microfluidic systems for cancer biomarker detection incorporating different dimensional nanomaterials, namely zero-dimensional (e.g., metal nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles, and quantum dots), one-dimensional (e.g., carbon nanotubes, silicon nanowires, zinc oxide nanowires/nanorods), two-dimensional (e.g., graphene and transition metal dichalcogenides nanosheets) and three-dimensional (e.g., metal-organic frameworks, covalent organic frameworks, and nanocomposites). The characteristics and functions of various nanomaterials are overviewed, and recent applications of nanomaterial-based microfluidics in liquid biopsy are highlighted. Current challenges and future perspectives are also presented. Overall, nanomaterial-based microfluidic devices provide powerful tools for cancer biomarker detection and are expected to experience pronounced development in cancer diagnostics and bioanalysis research.