Early detection of cancer cells using nanotechnology without biopsy

Cancer is a disease in which abnormal cells divide uncontrollably. Medically cancer is called by a fancy name called "Malignant Neoplasm". These abnormal cells have the ability to invade and destroy normal body cells. According to the statistical data for 2009, released by American Cancer Society, about 562,340 deaths were estimated due to cancer in America. Based on rates from 2004 - 2006, 40.58% of men and women born today will be detected with cancer of all sites at sometime during their life time. This can be expressed as 1 in 2 men and women will be diagnosed with cancer.The survival rate of the cancer patients depend upon the stage at which the cancer has been detected. The lower the stage or more localized the cancer or in other words early the detection of cancer, the better a person's chance of survival.

Cancer can be detected or diagnosed at different stages in their development. The stages can be indicated by number as I , II , III or IV or by terms such as localized, regional and distant. Some cancers can be detected at early stage such as breast cancer by using Mammograms.Yearly mammograms are recommended for women age 40 and above, once in 3 years for women age 30-40 years. Similarly colon and rectal cancers can be detected by using Flexible sigmoidoscopy, colonoscopy, CT colonography, Fecal Occult Blood Test [FOBT], and stool DNA test. But most of the cancers were detected at later stage because the symptoms may not be specific such as lung cancer and gastric cancer.Also most of the cancers were detected by Biopsy, which was one of the painful procedure.

Advancement in science and technology paved some ways to detect cancer in early stage without biopsy and previously this year a method has been released to treat cancer using nanotechnology.

Nanotechnology is the science of extremely tiny particles. It involves the study and use of materials on an unimaginable small scale. Our body is made up of millions of cells and these cells are nature's Nano machines.A nano is a measure of one-billionth of meter. Generally the nano structures were studied with the help of AFS-Atomic Force Microscopes or scanning tunneling microscopes. Scanning tunneling microscopes use a weak electric current to probe the scanned material, where as atomic force microscopes scan surfaces with an incredibly fine tip.

All the cells including the cancer cells were surrounded by brush layers. These brush layers on the surface of the cells are important for interacting with the environment. Normal cells and the cancer cells have different brush layers and so the interaction to the environment will be different. This principle is used in recent research to detect cancer with out biopsy and the cells were studied by using AFS.

"Trojan Horse" technology for cancer treatment

"Trojan horse" is a nanotechnology that may curb the need for deliberating chemotherapy.

Australian researcher, Himanshu Brahmbatt from Sydney based biotechnology company EnGenIC effictively used this effect in treating cancer in mice. In this method . The anti-cancer medications are targetted directly to the cancer cells without damaging the healthy tissue, a major problem in existing chemotherapy.

Brahmbatt loaded the cancer drugs in the form of nanoparticles directly on the cancer cells. The cells were loaded with medications and deployed in waves to combat cancer, he said. T he first wave disabled the resistance mechanism inside the cancer cells and repeated waves will kill the cancer cells. Also he used very little anti-cancer medication compared to existing chemotherapy, so it will be cost effective with less side effects. This will be an out patient procedure .

"You can achieve the treatment in a very short period of time and you can go about your normal life and not have any toxic side effects"

Igor sorkolov, a professor of physics and director of Nano Bio Laboratory [NABLAB] and his team proposed a new method for detecting cancer cells using Nano technology.According to him" The traditional techniques used in the cancer detection such as visual identification of malignant changes, cell growth analysis, specific-ligand receptor labeling or genetic test are either insufficiently accurate or require lengthy complicated analysis, which is impractical for clinical use".

The method using nanotechnology that he reported will be one of the alternative methods which will be more precise and simpler than the traditional methods.His new method of detection is based on the measurement of physical adhesion of silica beads to malignant cells and cancer cells. First the difference in the surface physical properties between cancer and normal cells where studied using AFS.

1. The study revealed that there is a quantitative differences in the brush layer on the surface of the cells. Normal cells have brushes with one length , on the other hand cancer cells displayed long and short brushes with different densities.
2. The difference in the brush layer leads to differences in the adhesion of various particles to the cells. The group used flourescent silica beads Prof.Solokov demonstrated that adhesion depends on the duration of contact between the particles and the cell surface. So different number of cells adhere to normal versus malignant cells.
3. They used fluorescent silica beads to make the detection easier by measuring the total amount of fluorescent light coming from particular area and acheived by using high sensitivity spectrometer.

He demonstrated this method using Human cervix cells. He also added "Due to the variability of human subjects, more statistics has to be collected to study the difference in the cells before involved in clinical application".

He also told " This method is a non toxic , simple, comparatively inexpensive method with straight forward interpretation and high specificity".