U.S. cancer researchers on Sunday announced a major advance in
detecting cancer cells as they spread throughout the body of an
afflicted person.
This advance could lead to the use of nanotechnology to detect
cancer and determine how rapidly it has spread, said researchers at
the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA).
Researchers at the UCLA's Jonsson Cancer Center said they had
used an atomic force microscope to literally poke a pointy stick
against the side of living cells, to determine how flexible the
cell walls are.
Because cancer cells have to squeeze into tight places as they
spread through a body, these diseased cells are typically more
flexible than healthy cells. By using the nanotechnology microscope
and device to wield the sharp pointy object, scientists have a new
tool to determine if any given sample cell is carcinogenic or
not.
Jianyu Rao, a UCLA researcher, said the new high-tech optical
test replaces the time-honored procedure of taking a tissue sample,
dying it, and looking at it in old-fashioned optical microscopes to
spot abnormal, carcinogenic cells.
"Usually the cancer cells have larger nuclei and other subtle
features," Rao said. "However, the normal cells from body cavity
fluids can look almost identical to cancer cells under an optical
microscope."
Chemistry professor James Gimzewski said the nanotechnology
process uses a tiny, sharp tip on a spring to push against the cell
surface and figure out how soft it is, an indication of whether it
is a colonizing cancer cell.
Scientists using the atomic force microscope can observe the
delicate test.
"We had to measure the softness of the cell without bursting
it," he said. "Otherwise, it's like trying to measure the softness
of a tomato with a hammer."
"You look at two tomatoes in the supermarket and both are red,"
he explained. "One is rotten, but it looks normal. If you pick up
the tomatoes and feel them, it's easy to figure out which one is
rotten. We're doing the same thing."
(Agencies via Xinhua News Agency December 3, 2007)