Magnetic wire can detect cancer early

Boston, July 17: A magnetic wire used to snag hard- to- capture tumour cells from blood vessels could prove to be a swift and effective tactic for early cancer detection, scientists say.

The wire, which is threaded into a vein, attracts special magnetic nanoparticles engineered to glom onto tumour cells that may be roaming the bloodstream if you have a tumour somewhere in your body.

With these tumour cells essentially magnetised, the wire can lure the cells out of the free- flowing bloodstream using the same force that holds family photos to your refrigerator.

The technique could even help doctors evaluate a patient's response to particular cancer treatments: If the therapy is working, tumour- cell levels in the blood should rise as the cells die and break away from the tumour, and then fall as the tumour shrinks.

“It could be useful in any other disease in which there are cells or molecules of interest in the blood,” said Sam Gambhir, a professor at Stanford University in the US.

“For example, let's say you're checking for a bacterial infection, circulating tumor DNA or rare cells that are responsible for inflammation in any of these scenarios, the wire and nanoparticles help to enrich the signal, and therefore detect the disease or infection,” he said.

Cells that have sloughed off the tumour and cruise the bloodstream freely, otherwise known as circulating tumour cells, can serve as cancer biomarkers.