Mini microscopes effectively screen cancer cells in the blood

Normally, cancerous tumors can spread cells carrying pathogens through the blood stream and form new tumors in other parts, called metastasis. Because these "seed" cells - also called circulatory cancer cells (CTC) - are difficult to detect, scientists at Stanford University (USA) have developed a non-invasive method of promise. An appointment for early screening for cancer is to use a mini microscope capable of tracing CTC in the blood.

One of the most ruthless facts about cancer is that even after curing the disease, it can still recur and kill the suffering. The reason is that germs that are growing in the prostate (in men), chest or any other organ can still spread cancer cells into the blood. Where CTCs move throughout the body and "root" where it can create tumors there and become new threats. Therefore, the rule of cancer treatment is to discover the sooner the disease, the more effective the treatment is, the higher the ability to get rid of the "death scythe" .

The mini microscope promises to be an effective and non-invasive cancer screening method.(Photo: LA Cicero)

In current screening techniques, doctors often draw the patient's blood and then use special antibodies to seek CTC presence. However, this method only results if CTC appears in large quantities, but cannot detect a small amount of CTC produced by available tumors. Meanwhile, Stanford University Medical Professor Bonnie King said that a big advantage of the mini microscope technique is the ability to screen on a large volume of blood , instead of just a little blood taken from patient. This is a collaborative research project between electrical engineering professor Olav Solgaars, surgical professor Geoffrey Gurtner and oncology professor Michael Clarke, funded by the Bio-X Interdisciplinary Research Initiative. of Stanford University.

The diagnostic procedure is described by Christopher Contag, professor of pediatrics: first, the doctor will give the patient a special dye that makes CTC cells luminescent, and then use a size microscope. a pen to project a low-energy laser into a thin, blood-like blood vessel just below the skin. Once the cancer cells (dyed dye) pass through the laser light, they will react and become different from normal cells. Finally, the microscope will mark each CTC cell and store this information into the computer.

Professor Gurtner is working on a clinical trial to evaluate the subdermal luminescence effect of cell dye (approved by the US Food and Drug Administration) in surgical reconstruction surgery. breast cancer. At the same time, he also tested the ability to detect blood vessels and circulating cells in the blood of a mini microscope that his team created.

In addition, the team is also focusing on developing a method of screening blood cancer cells in mice, taking advantage of the nearly transparent thin skin in the mouse's ear canal to observe luminescent cells that are passing through blood vessel. Scientists hope to test this method on humans soon to prove its effectiveness.