Cells-mutants will help diagnose cancer
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
At the University of Swansea, a team of researchers created a unique blood test that helps to identify cancerous tumors in the body. According to the researchers, the new analysis allows diagnosing the disease long before the appearance of the first symptoms, testing takes only a few hours and can be carried out in any dispensary where there is the most common laboratory equipment.
Professor Gareth Jenkins, who led the research project, noted that the test reveals changes that occur in proteins on the surface of red blood cells. Proteins in the normal state attract proteins, but with the development of the tumor, this ability disappears. Specialists stained cells with special fluorescent antibodies, and as a result, proteins on the surface of blood cells that remained in the normal state and which mutated became visible, in addition, scientists were able to count the number of abnormal and normal proteins.
The next step of the scientists was to compare the results with the norm. In a healthy person, on average, there are about 5 mutated erythrocytes, while the number of abnormal cells increases by up to 10 times in case of cancer. After a course of chemotherapy in the patient's body of such mutated cells, there are more than a hundred.
At the same time, according to experts, the process of mutation of red blood cells does not affect the development of a cancerous tumor, mutation develops against the background of disease progression.
The scientists noted that the new analysis can be compared with a "smoke detector" that detects a fire in the room, but the detector reacts not to the fire itself, but to smoke, as well as a new analysis, reacts not to the disease itself, but to its by-product - mutating blood cells. Professor Jenkins emphasized that it is the disease that provokes mutations, and not vice versa, and, in fact, this is the basis for a new analysis.
At the Siberian Medical University, a team of scientists also advanced in search of new ways to diagnose cancerous tumors. At this stage, specialists develop a pre-operative method for diagnosing follicular thyroid cancer. This type of cancer differs from others in that it can not be distinguished from a benign process until a cytological study is performed. According to statistics, more than 80% of patients who did cytology showed a benign process in the thyroid gland.
Specialists of the Siberian Medical University noted that they were trying to develop a method that would help to identify a malignant process with a fine needle aspiration biopsy and solve the current problem with the diagnosis of cancer of this species. A similar analysis is used in the diagnosis of cervical cancer, but for thyroid markers that help identify cancer cells have not yet been developed.
Irina Berezkina, a graduate student of the Siberian Medical University, explained that her colleagues have already conducted a study in which they managed to identify a malignant process in the thyroid with the help of one of the markers. In addition, the scientists developed a formula that helps solve this problem with maximum accuracy.
[