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Friday, October 23, 2015
Diamonds Can Detect Cancer
Gem May Help Find Tumors at Earliest Stage, Study Shows
By Diane Wedner, Lifescript Health Writer-October 12, 2015
Diamonds, long considered a girl’s best friend, may be everyone’s, now that scientists say the gems help detect early-stage cancers. Read on for details of this exciting discovery...Diamonds aren’t just fashion accessories for the well-heeled.
The precious gem also can detect early-stage, cancerous tumors, according to results of a University of Sydney study.
The Australian researchers invented a way to make synthetic diamonds light up inside a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine, a beacon, as it were, for cancer cells.
Related Quiz: What Really Causes Cancer? Myths vs. Facts
Diamonds don’t light up on their own during an MRI scan, so the scientists devised a way so that light from nanoscale, synthetic (and inexpensive) diamond particles can be visible inside the machine, attracting the cancer. One nanometer is equal to 1-billionth of a meter.
“We've
magnetized the atoms within the nano-diamond, and this makes them light
up on an MRI scan,” lead author and Ph.D. student Ewa Rej said in a
statement. “The manipulated diamonds are then attached to specific
chemicals that are known to target cancers.”
Like a lighthouse
The diamonds are attached to cancer-detecting chemicals so the researchers can track them as they move through a patient’s body. Cancer draws the chemicals to the tumor site and the diamonds light up on the MRI scan.
“Having those chemicals target certain types of cancers, bind to certain types of receptors, is something that's advanced,” lead researcher David Reilly, Ph.D., said in a statement. “What we've done is now develop that lighthouse to image those things in an MRI, thereby [allowing us to] actually see the cancers light up, without having to open somebody up.”
The discovery will be especially helpful in detecting early-stage pancreatic and brain cancers, two of the deadliest cancers, before they become life-threatening, the scientists said. That allows patients to get earlier treatment, improving their survival chances.
The next stage for the researchers is testing the technology in mice. It will take several more years before it can be used on humans, they said.
Like a lighthouse
The diamonds are attached to cancer-detecting chemicals so the researchers can track them as they move through a patient’s body. Cancer draws the chemicals to the tumor site and the diamonds light up on the MRI scan.
“Having those chemicals target certain types of cancers, bind to certain types of receptors, is something that's advanced,” lead researcher David Reilly, Ph.D., said in a statement. “What we've done is now develop that lighthouse to image those things in an MRI, thereby [allowing us to] actually see the cancers light up, without having to open somebody up.”
The discovery will be especially helpful in detecting early-stage pancreatic and brain cancers, two of the deadliest cancers, before they become life-threatening, the scientists said. That allows patients to get earlier treatment, improving their survival chances.
The next stage for the researchers is testing the technology in mice. It will take several more years before it can be used on humans, they said.
