EVANSTON, Ill., Feb 17, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. medical scientists say
they have developed a technology that is capable of detecting never-before-seen
signs of early-stage pancreatic cancer.
A team of researchers led by Northwestern University biomedical engineering
Professor Vadim Backman said although the new technique has not yet proven
effective in double-blind clinical trials, it might one day help diagnose
cancers of the pancreas and, potentially, other organs at their earliest and
most treatable stages.
The researchers, including a team from the NorthShore University HealthSystem,
said the new technique -- called partial wave spectroscopic microscopy -- allows
them to examine cell samples taken from people who have undergone screening for
pancreatic cancer to detect signs of the disease.
Pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed by hospital pathologists who look for
telltale changes to the morphology of pancreatic cells when they examine cell
biopsies under the microscope, the scientists said. The problem is many
early-stage cancer cells appear normal.
The new technique measures nanoscopic changes to the interior architecture of
cells -- changes that may signal signs of cancer even in cells that look normal
under the microscope.
The research that included graduate students Yang Liu and Hariharan Subramanian
and postdoctoral fellow Prabhakar Pradhan appears in the online edition of the
journal Optics Letters.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International