Healthy Life Plans

A team of researchers at Stanford developed a new tool to detect cancer markers in your blood earlier than any other device currently used in medicine. Detecting cancer in its earliest forms dramatically increases your chance of surviving this deadly disease. Here is information about this amazing breakthrough.

The system based on MagArray biodetection chips can find cancer-associated proteins in a blood serum sample in less than an hour, and with much greater sensitivity than existing commercial devices. In fact, the device, which uses magnetic nanotechnology to spot the cancer proteins, is tens to hundreds of times more sensitive, meaning the proteins can be found while there are relatively few of them in the bloodstream.

“This is essentially a proof-of-concept study showing that now we have a chip and a reader that can find multiple biomarkers in a sample at a concentration much lower than the standard that is commercially available,” said Shan Wang, a Stanford professor of materials science and of electrical engineering.

Wang is optimistic that the technology will someday save lives by detecting cancer early or by helping doctors select more effective therapy. “The earlier you can detect a cancer, the better chance you have to kill it,” he said. “This could be especially helpful for lung cancer, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer, because those cancers are hidden in the body.”

The detector is able to detect many different kinds of proteins at the same time, which is important for two reasons, Wang said. First, researchers are still uncertain which cancer biomarkers are the best diagnostic indicators. Secondly, detecting multiple biomarkers simultaneously will allow a doctor to diagnose more specifically the kind of cancer a patient may have.

To properly prepare a patient’s blood sample for use with the detector, a technician must use a centrifuge to separate out the serum, which contains the biomarkers. For this reason, the device must be located in a hospital or a private diagnostic lab, Wang said. But before then it must face clinical testing and trials to win regulatory approval. You can find out more information here.