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Swiping Out Cancer
mhackarbie writes "Just read this article over on Wired about a cheap hand scanner which might be able to spot cancer tumors. It took only few seconds of reflection before I decided this could be the killer biotech app which is needed for the dot-bio boom everyone keeps predicting someday." We've mentioned this gizmo before.
It won't be a biotech "killer app" since biotech companies are working on genomic and proteomic application. By definition, biotech involves altering DNA on organism (usually bacteria) and selling a protein or procedure derivated from it.
This device seems promising, but can't be called biotechnology.
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
"Experts will remain cautious until a study on TRIMprob's abilities has been examined in a peer-reviewed medical journal."
and from the earlier BBC article:
"The results have yet to be accepted for publication in a major medical journal - and the device will not find favour in hospitals elsewhere until they are."
This is the key point - without peer review, there's no way of verifying the claims of a company that is obviously in marketing mode.
Searching Medline for "Tissue Resonance InterferoMeter Probe" or "TRIMprob" turned up ZERO matches. Without good evidence, there is no reason to take this seriously as other than marketing fluff.
For many blood tests, 95% accuracy is considered excellent and essentially means it's 100% accurate for all practical purposes. hCG (pregnancy test) comes to mind. I doubt current single tests for cancer are any better.
Hmmm... a quick googling reveals that current breast cancer methods are around 80% and a new PSA (prostate) test clocks in at 98% best case.
I'd say 95% is pretty damn good.
>Testicle-cancer in men is (also) often diagnosed too late. I do not know how they confirm that you have it (AFTER the physical examination) but I :o
> hope to god it does not involve a vice-like device
A vice-like device? You should be so lucky.
Confirmation involves a knife.
You're only making things worse. You misquoted (perhaps intentionally) to further your definition in hopes that no one would find the Dupont site. The actual line you're quoting, sans elipsis, states, "Transgenics (often referred to as biotechnology) is the application of scientific knowledge to transfer beneficial genetic traits from one species to another to enhance or protect an organism."
They are clearly talking about the field of transgenics, which is what you called 'biotechnology', they were merely stating that it is often called biotechnology, but with the implication that biotech refers to a much larger spectrum.
Even further, if you would have followed the link to the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)'s glossary, you would have found that they describe biotechnology as, "Biotechnology -
The use of biological processes to solve problems or make useful products." under which the product in question would surely fall.
--- What
95% is excellent as you say. But pregnancy test, has more than 99% accuracy, since it is based on an monoclonal antibody mediated reaction.
DNA in your Linux: DNALinux
Not necessarily illegal, maybe it depends on who you are. I had an inteview with CSIS (canadian CIA) once. One of the first 5 questions they asked me was wheter or not I had done any illegal drugs in the past year. I don't think they would have done any tests per say, but part of the recruiting process included a polygraph, which they would have probably asked the same question, and discovered if I had been lying. It's amazing, here i was interviewing for a job with computers, and they weren't concerned at all whether I was a hacker/cracker(i'm not, but they didn't ask), but were worried about very occasional marijuana use. Just doesn't make much sense to me.
This isn't because microwaves cause cancer--there still is no consistent corpus of evidence to support that hypothesis and there may never be--but rather because they cause heating. There are proteins within our bodies' cells that begin to denature at around forty degrees celsius. At or above this temperature (which actually isn't particularly warm), the proportion of exposed cells that die is a function of temperature and exposure time. (See, for example, James R. Lepock, "Protein Denaturation During Heat Shock" in Advances in Molecular and Cell Biology, Volume 19, pages 223-259, for an excellent survey of current thought on the mechanisms at work.)
So microwaves are dangerous because they cause heating. Not only that, they can cause deep heating in localized hotspots. In other words, you may actually do damage to the brain, eyes, and other organs very quickly without having to burn through the layers on the surface first. (This is what makes microwaves more threatening than the stovetop. The heating elements don't burn unless you come into close contact, and they can't burn deeply without lengthy exposure.)
~Idarubicin