A new technique can pick up the snap, crackle and pop of melanoma cells
- From: J <ercent@xxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 13:54:34 -0400
I don't see the value in this, if true.
So FWIW
J
<http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1161428791051&call_pageid=970599119419>
The sound of skin cancer
Breakthrough Dept. |The sound of skin cancer
Breakthrough Dept. | A new technique can pick up the snap, crackle and pop
of melanoma cells in a patient's bloodstream
Oct. 22, 2006. 01:00 AM
LESLIE SCRIVENER
TORONTO STAR
The snap, crackle and pop of skin-cancer cells expanding and contracting ?
sounds inaudible to the human ear ? are being used by scientists to detect
the spread of cancer through the bloodstream.
Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that melanoma cells
emit a high-frequency pulse when zapped with a laser, a property that
could be used in cancer treatment to show that the cells are spreading to
another part of the body.
The advantage of this new method is that it could become a very quick ?
30-minute ? screening and monitoring tool for high-risk patients. If it
proves successful in upcoming pilot studies with patients in advanced
stages of melanoma, it could easily be used in a cancer clinic, says John
Viator, assistant professor of biological engineering and dermatology at
the University of Missouri in Columbia, and one of the authors of the
study.
Researchers have been able to spot as few as 10 cancer cells in a blood
sample, though their objective is to refine the technique to detect a
single cancer cell.
Using a blood-sample culture from a patient with advanced melanoma,
researchers separate the blood into red blood cells and plasma, put a
sample of the cells in a saline solution, and expose it to a rapid burst
of laser.
If the blood cells are healthy, nothing will absorb the laser light. But
if melanoma cells are present, the tiny, dark granules of melanin
contained in them will absorb the light. The only reason melanin is found
in human blood is because of the presence of melanoma, Viator says.
As the cells absorb the laser light and heat up, they expand, and as they
cool, they shrink, a process that generates an ultrasound wave and tiny
noise.
"With my colleagues I call it a photo-acoustic source. To a general
science audience I call it an ultrasonic wave. But to a lay audience, it
wouldn't be improper to call it a snap, a crackle or a pop," says Viator.
"It's much higher than we can hear, a high-frequency pulse even much
higher than dogs can hear, but not high enough that our sensitive acoustic
detectors won't hear it."
If the sensors detect the popping sound, it means there are melanoma cells
circulating in the blood. "If there are lot of them, you'll get a lot of
those sound pulses; if you're clear of cancer, there's none."
This method will be beneficial in the monitoring of cancer treatments,
Viator says, because it will help doctors see if the number of cancer
cells is high and if the number of circulating cells decreases after
treatment.
It will also help them decide the best course of treatment for a cancer
patient. "If there are 30 acoustic events and then after treatment we see
one or two, it means you're responding well and we're going to continue
(that kind of) treatment."
Melanoma is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer, with both the
incidence and death rate increasing. There are 4,500 new cases in Canada
each year and 880 deaths; however, if caught early, doctors say that
melanoma is about 90 per cent curable.
So far, the photo-acoustic method has only been applied to melanoma
because of the light-absorbing qualities of melanin. Viator says the next
stage is to attach some kind of dye or absorber to other kinds of cancer
cells, such as breast or lung, so that they too are capable of absorbing
light.
Calling the study of circulating cancer cells in blood a "brand new
field," Viator says the technology could easily be adapted to a hospital
cancer clinic. "I envision a small black box: You put in a blood sample
and wait a half-hour, and a number comes out giving you the relative
number of these cells."
Dr. David Leffell, professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine
and head of Yale's skin-cancer program, says this study is the first to
demonstrate that there may be a way to use laser and photo-acoustic energy
to identify cancer.
Among the unknowns: It's not clear if melanoma cells break off from the
primary tumour site in bursts or one at a time, or if they are evenly
distributed in the blood.
What is known, says Leffell, is that "the ability to identify them once
they have travelled in the bloodstream is very valuable."in a patient's
bloodstream
Oct. 22, 2006. 01:00 AM
LESLIE SCRIVENER
TORONTO STAR
The snap, crackle and pop of skin-cancer cells expanding and contracting ?
sounds inaudible to the human ear ? are being used by scientists to detect
the spread of cancer through the bloodstream.
Researchers at the University of Missouri have found that melanoma cells
emit a high-frequency pulse when zapped with a laser, a property that
could be used in cancer treatment to show that the cells are spreading to
another part of the body.
The advantage of this new method is that it could become a very quick ?
30-minute ? screening and monitoring tool for high-risk patients. If it
proves successful in upcoming pilot studies with patients in advanced
stages of melanoma, it could easily be used in a cancer clinic, says John
Viator, assistant professor of biological engineering and dermatology at
the University of Missouri in Columbia, and one of the authors of the
study.
Researchers have been able to spot as few as 10 cancer cells in a blood
sample, though their objective is to refine the technique to detect a
single cancer cell.
Using a blood-sample culture from a patient with advanced melanoma,
researchers separate the blood into red blood cells and plasma, put a
sample of the cells in a saline solution, and expose it to a rapid burst
of laser.
If the blood cells are healthy, nothing will absorb the laser light. But
if melanoma cells are present, the tiny, dark granules of melanin
contained in them will absorb the light. The only reason melanin is found
in human blood is because of the presence of melanoma, Viator says.
As the cells absorb the laser light and heat up, they expand, and as they
cool, they shrink, a process that generates an ultrasound wave and tiny
noise.
"With my colleagues I call it a photo-acoustic source. To a general
science audience I call it an ultrasonic wave. But to a lay audience, it
wouldn't be improper to call it a snap, a crackle or a pop," says Viator.
"It's much higher than we can hear, a high-frequency pulse even much
higher than dogs can hear, but not high enough that our sensitive acoustic
detectors won't hear it."
If the sensors detect the popping sound, it means there are melanoma cells
circulating in the blood. "If there are lot of them, you'll get a lot of
those sound pulses; if you're clear of cancer, there's none."
This method will be beneficial in the monitoring of cancer treatments,
Viator says, because it will help doctors see if the number of cancer
cells is high and if the number of circulating cells decreases after
treatment.
It will also help them decide the best course of treatment for a cancer
patient. "If there are 30 acoustic events and then after treatment we see
one or two, it means you're responding well and we're going to continue
(that kind of) treatment."
Melanoma is one of the most aggressive forms of cancer, with both the
incidence and death rate increasing. There are 4,500 new cases in Canada
each year and 880 deaths; however, if caught early, doctors say that
melanoma is about 90 per cent curable.
So far, the photo-acoustic method has only been applied to melanoma
because of the light-absorbing qualities of melanin. Viator says the next
stage is to attach some kind of dye or absorber to other kinds of cancer
cells, such as breast or lung, so that they too are capable of absorbing
light.
Calling the study of circulating cancer cells in blood a "brand new
field," Viator says the technology could easily be adapted to a hospital
cancer clinic. "I envision a small black box: You put in a blood sample
and wait a half-hour, and a number comes out giving you the relative
number of these cells."
Dr. David Leffell, professor of dermatology at the Yale School of Medicine
and head of Yale's skin-cancer program, says this study is the first to
demonstrate that there may be a way to use laser and photo-acoustic energy
to identify cancer.
Among the unknowns: It's not clear if melanoma cells break off from the
primary tumour site in bursts or one at a time, or if they are evenly
distributed in the blood.
What is known, says Leffell, is that "the ability to identify them once
they have travelled in the bloodstream is very valuable."
.
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