U.S researchers have found that cancerous cells are 70 percent softer than non-cancerous ones by using an atomic force microscope.
The nano-scale tool measured a difference in elasticity of cells in lung, breast and pancreatic cancers and this difference could help provide a way of detecting malignant cells that might otherwise go undetected. Currently, pathologists examine surgically removed tissue under a microscope by placing thinly sliced, stained sections on a glass slide. They also use antibodies to pinpoint certain proteins to differentiate between healthy and cancerous cells.
These processes are not always accurate due to the fact that healthy and cancerous cells can sometimes look similar. In fact, previous studies have shown that diagnostic errors in lung cancer samples may be as high as 15 percent. Using existing methods combined with the new technique could reduce this margin of error.
In experiments conducted at the University of California in Los Angeles, a team of researchers led by James Gimzewski removed body fluid from suspected cancer patients.
Using atomic force microscopes -- a nanotechnology gadget measured in units 10,000 times smaller than the width of a human hair -- they applied minute amounts of pressure on individual cells with a sharp probe attached to a mechanical arm.
The term "microscope" is, in fact, a misnomer because the tool gages surface pressure rather than providing a magnified view.
The researchers discovered that malignant cells -- verified as cancerous by other means -- were four times as soft as normal tissue across all three types of cancer examined.
"Our work shows that mechanical analysis can distinguish cancerous cells from normal ones even when they show similar shapes," Gimzewski and his colleagues concluded.
When a normal cell becomes cancerous, its shape and its internal "skeleton" change. This transformation causes a loss of stiffness, but is not always visible.
The softness, they noted, makes it easier for malignant cells to invade and spread -- or metastasise -- to other parts of the body.
The study is published in the British journal Nature Nanotechnology.
[Source: Yahoo News]
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