A good, economical technique for detecting breast cancer

 

A good, economical technique for detecting breast cancer

A good and economical way to detect breast cancer_ichhori.com


Whenever breast cancer is thought to be present, a biopsy is performed. But this is intrusive, uncomfortable, and expensive. Additionally, it takes a few days to receive the findings. In the future, a liquid biopsy of a patient's blood might be used to make a diagnosis. This approach is painless, economical, and produces results in a matter of hours. This novel approach is being developed by a group of researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Polymer Research IAP.

A biopsy is typically required if a patient's breast contains a suspicious lump, and the procedure entails the removal of small samples of the mass's tissue for laboratory testing. It is crucial to determine whether the suspicious lump is a benign change in the tissue or a tumour, which would indicate a sickness. The wait time for findings is now several days for patients. Additionally, a biopsy is pricy, uncomfortable, and risky because it is an invasive procedure that could result in tissue damage or an infection of the wound.

Quick and painless biomarker detection in body fluids

The typical breast cancer biopsy and all of its drawbacks will be rendered obsolete, according to researchers at the Fraunhofer Center for Applied Nanotechnology (CAN), a research branch of Fraunhofer IAP in Hamburg. "In the LIBIMEDOTS project, we are working on detecting breast cancer via circulating tumour cells," says Dr Neus Feliu Torres, who has been in charge of the "Nanocellular Interactions" working group at Fraunhofer IAP via an Attract programme since July 2020. "We are working with Spain's Universitat Rovira I Virgili, Universität Hamburg, and the Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf." Numerous tumour cells may enter the bloodstream and other physiological fluids if there is a tumour in the body, such as in the breast. There are many benefits if these cells can be found there rather than by performing a tumour sample. First off, the procedure requires only a small amount of blood from the patient, which makes it gentle. Second, the outcomes are accessible in a matter of hours. The research team believes that by adopting this strategy, it will be feasible to evaluate the efficacy of a treatment in addition to more quickly and gently identifying early-stage breast malignancies.

Detection and Enrichment of Malignant cells

The two pillars on which the examination principle is built. In order to be discovered, the first method entails enhancing the tumour cells in the blood. "Tumor cells are only one in a million of the total number of somatic cells in the blood. As a result, they are very challenging to locate and identify "Feliu Torres says. The Fraunhofer team is creating magnetic nanoparticles to enhance tumour cells. With the help of this payload, a magnetic field can gather and concentrate the tumour cells. The second pillar is the targeted detection of enhanced tumour cells by attaching fluorescent particles to their surface. "This enables us to specifically bind fluorescent particles to the tumour cells' surface. They then glow so brightly that only a few tumour cells are required to establish proof "the chemist and medical scientist adds. It is insufficient to employ a single type of fluorescent particle since the circulating tumour cells differ from patient to patient. To find the tumour cells, the team is therefore creating a variety of different particles with distinct binding capabilities. As a result, the detection procedure will be speedier, more precise, sensitive, and cost-effective.

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