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Detecting Cancer Without Drawing Blood

Posted by kdawson on from the you'll-feel-a-slight-pinch dept.

An anonymous reader informs us of research out of Purdue that allows for early detection of cancer without a blood sample. The technique involves shining laser light on surface veins, such as those in the wrist or cheek.

18 of 72 comments (clear)

  1. New? by PhrostyMcByte · · Score: 2

    I remember my dad taking a continued education class for dentistry, and he saw something like this.. several years ago. I'm not sure if it was the same thing, but apparently it found cancer in people even before they show symptoms.

    1. Re:New? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 3, Informative
      This is not a screening test. You have to know exactly what cancer you have, make tagged cells with the correct antibodies to said cancer, inject those cells and then the Magic Machine counts them. You could conceivably use this to screen for a specific cancer if you did all that work to make the target, but I really doubt that will ever prove practical.

      This would be for evaluating treatments of known cancers.

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      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
  2. Use a dog by jag7720 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Dogs have been used to sniff out cancer patience for a long time... plus they are a lot more friendly and playful than a laser.

    1. Re:Use a dog by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Then I must have a lot of butt cancer.

    2. Re:Use a dog by jag7720 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah. And the dog can have fun chasing and biting at the laser dot on the floor or the patient's leg....

      "Um, sir... we regret to inform you that you have cancer in your leg as well as a very deep dog bite... we will need to treat with radiation to the leg and rabies shots to the abdomen.

    3. Re:Use a dog by MyLongNickName · · Score: 2, Funny

      sniff out cancer patience

      I, for one, have very little patience with cancer.

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  3. "What's your sign?"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    ...always seems to work for me! ;)

  4. Re:This was already posted ./ by GeckoX · · Score: 3, Informative

    What're you asking for exactly?
    It's very common for there to be multiple versions of the same story in the firehose, editors pick the best.

    In this case, they picked the one that linked to the actual news release, not to a secondary news source as you suggest they should have.

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    No Comment.
  5. Re:This was already posted ./ by nonsequitor · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Technically its not a dupe, its still in the firehose. Additionally this had the better of the 2 summaries. You'll notice MANY dupes on the firehose, so its not even a big deal.

    Learn how slashdot works before telling editors they're doing it wrong. Oh wait, carry on.

  6. Re:This was already posted ./ by Dr.+Eggman · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd rather have the link to Purdue since they're the ones conducting the research, rather than some tech news blog. Just because something came first, doesn't make it the better choice. A better summary or a better link should always win out over earlier submission in my book.

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    Demented But Determined.
  7. Sample Size by the+eric+conspiracy · · Score: 4, Informative

    The real advantage of this technique is that it allows measurement of a larger size sample. There is still an injection of the florescent label, but by scanning the body surface a much larger blood sample can be monitored which makes this method more sensitive - making detection at an early stage better.

  8. Sharks by BlowHole666 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Does the Laser come with its own shark?

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    I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
  9. Next step - zapping? by gregor-e · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Now, if only they could zap each metastatic cell that passes under their instrument, they'd be able to limit the spread (or, at least, limit those metastases that spend quite a while surfing the blood before finally lodging somewhere else).

    1. Re:Next step - zapping? by Maximum+Prophet · · Score: 3, Informative

      I was thinking the exact same thing, using something like a gamma knife. Gamma rays have a wavelength much smaller than cells, so you could use several beams to target individual cells. Each beam wouldn't be lethal, but when combined, they would kill the cell. There are techniques using femto-second lasers to release the laser energy at a specific depth. Now, all you need is a femto-second gamma ray laser...

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      All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
  10. my dog is better suited to detect cancer by DragonTHC · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There are people who are training hound dogs to detect cancer in people.

    The dogs are better suited to the task than some million dollar laser beam.
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/08/08 20_040820_detectordogs.html

    Dogs are cheaper to train and maintain. And, they provide therapy for those who are proven positive.

    It's win-win.

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    They're using their grammar skills there.
    1. Re:my dog is better suited to detect cancer by DragonTHC · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Not true.

      the dogs have been able to successfully detect internal tumors months before a blood test on other systems.
      Dogs have successfully detected kidney cancer as well.

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      They're using their grammar skills there.
  11. blog troll by everphilski · · Score: 2, Interesting

    yup, his one and only journal entry links to the same site, different article.

  12. Re:This was already posted ./ by GeckoX · · Score: 2, Informative

    Yeah, that's kinda exactly what I was getting at...there was no reasonable justification for suggesting that the article he linked to in the firehose should have taken precedent in getting picked for the main page...definitely suspect an ulterior motive there.

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