Slashdot Mirror
Extremely Accurate Nanotech Cancer Test Developed
Sylvestre writes "Medical News Today reports that Harvard researchers have developed an accurate test for cancer using nanotechnology. From the article: 'Harvard University researchers have found that molecular markers indicating the presence of cancer in the body are readily detected in blood scanned by special arrays of silicon nanowires -- even when these cancer markers constitute only one hundred-billionth of the protein present in a drop of blood. In addition to this exceptional accuracy and sensitivity, the minuscule devices also promise to pinpoint the exact type of cancer present with a speed not currently available to clinicians.'"
These tests are performed on a drop of blood. They don't enter the body!
"A nanowire array can test a mere pinprick of blood in just minutes, providing a nearly instantaneous scan for many different cancer markers."
They take a blood sample from the patient, and then use the nanowires to test it.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
The nature of the hypochondriac is that no diagnosis is ever good enough.
"Well, maybe I administered the test wrong...I'll just go back to the store and get a few more so I can try again...then I'll call my doctor..."
A very good point.
Go look up 'lead time bias' and breast cancer treatments. The biggest shock is that we're now detecting far more breast cancers than ever before, yet the death rate (or 5-year survival) has barely changed.
This raises a couple of possibilities:
1 - We're just detecting cancers earlier, and our current treatments do nothing for those with the disease. I.e. people are living longer with the cancer not because the treatment is better but because they're diagnosed earlier.
2 - We're still failing to catch the really bad cancers out there. The ones that develop really quickly and we can't do anything about. These are chipping away at our 5 year survival rates.
So will a rapid home cancer test kit help? Who knows as of yet. Problems are going to be addressing the above issues, as well as letting people know that there are such things as:
- 'sensitivity' - a 'false positive' rate (as well as false negatives of course - a far worse thing)
- and also a 'the test is positive but it's because of ingrowing toenails and not cancer' rate (specificity).
Could be good...we'll have to wait and see. Personally, I see better applications for being able to detect minute amounts of blood proteins than 'cancer detection'.
-Nano.
"Assuming individuals test themselves regularly (every 6 months perhaps)."
This is exactly the issue, if people test themselves. I was diagnosed with Accute Lymphoblastic Lukaemia (ALL) in Jan 2003, I hold the record for the highest circulating Lukaemic count in an adult in Queensland(Australia) - I could have been diagnosed sooner had I been tested, the issue is that I didn't think I needed to see a doctor for testing. While tests like this are excelent in providing difinitive results for early detection in a short period of time people need to use them to reduce the risk of people almost dieing(like I did) from various cancers.
Something else worth mentioning is that we currently have no cure for cancers, we in the cancer community can only hope for "long term remission". While remission may last for the rest of your life, in fact you may die from other natural causes, this does not mean you are cured. I, for example, will live with the risk of relapse for the rest of my life. Despite recieving heaps of chemo and a bone marrow transplant.