Table 4 Main advantages and limitations of techniques commonly used to evaluate cell migration and invasion

Scratch/wound

Easy;

Frequently used to mimic wounds;

Low cost.

Interpretation is limited by cell proliferation;

Scratches are difficult to standardize;

Creates damaged and dead cell components.

Martinotti and Ranzato (2020)

Transwell migration/invasion

Easy/Medium;

Can be used for invasion and migration assays;

Inserts are costly.

For migration assay: Traces only individual migration;

For invasion assay: Measures only vertical movement.

Trepat et al. (2012); Kramer et al. (2013); Pijuan et al. (2019)

On-chip

Easy;

Can be used for invasion and migration assays.

Drug concentration limitations;

Laborious optimization;

Translation to 3D, in vivo or clinical studies;

High cost.

Dou and Lin (2018); Nie et al. (2020)

Cell tracking

Easy/Medium difficulty;

Best for migration assay;

Medium cost.

Live imaging equipment and materials are needed;

Noise artifacts can bias the experiment;

Laborious if long recording times and/or many cells for manual tracking.

Decaestecker et al. (2007); Menyhárt et al. (2016)