30-Minute Cancer Test Will Speed Detection
30 Minute Cancer Test Will Speed DetectionHow many lives might be saved if oral cancer could be detected within 30 minutes? An opportunity to answer this question may emerge at the close of research focused on a new diagnostic
30-Minute Cancer Test May Speed Detection
How many lives might be saved if oral cancer could be detected within 30 minutes? An opportunity to answer this question may emerge at the close of research focused on a new diagnostic tool the size of a postage stamp.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded researchers in Rice University’s new BioScience Research Collaborative (BRC) a $2 million Grand Opportunity (GO) grant to develop a fast, inexpensive test for oral cancer that a dentist could perform simply by using a brush to collect a small sample of cells from a patient’s mouth.
“We want to provide an accurate diagnosis for oral cancer in less than 30 minutes using a minimally invasive test that requires no scalpels or off-site lab tests,” says principal investigator John T. McDevitt, Rice’s Brown-Wiess Professor in Bioengineering and Chemistry.
“The payoff for this could be tremendous because oral cancers today are typically diagnosed much too late in their development,” McDevitt says.
Oral squamous cell carcinoma affects about 300,000 people per year worldwide, according to a report by Rice University, which points out most cases are diagnosed in their late stages.
EARLY DETECTION IS KEY TO SURVIVAL
If oral cancer is detected early, the prognosis for patients is excellent, with a five-year survival rate of more than 90 percent, according to the Rice report. However, the report indicates the actual five-year survival rate for oral squamous cell carcinoma is only about 50 percent.
Researchers say the new test will be possible because of a novel microchip invented in McDevitt’s lab. This “lab-on-a-chip” uses the latest techniques in microchip design, nanotechnology, microfluidics, image analysis, pattern recognition and biotechnology to shrink many of the main functions of a state-of-the-art clinical pathology laboratory onto a microchip similar in size to a postage stamp.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
The microchips are designed to be mounted on disposable, plastic cards that are slotted into a battery-powered analyzer. A brush-biopsy sample is placed on the card and microfluidic circuits wash cells from the sample into a reaction chamber. The cells pass through mini-fluidic channels about the size of small veins and come in contact with “biomarkers” that react only with specific types of diseased cells. The machine uses two LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, to light up various regions of the cells and cell compartments. Healthy and diseased cells can be distinguished from one another by the way they glow in response to the LEDs.
“An affordable oral-cancer test that can be performed painlessly and quickly in either a regular visit at the doctor or dentist’s office benefits patients and clinicians by detecting cancer earlier and lowering health care costs,” McDevitt says.
Source: Rice University
