He cancer diagnosisas well as his follow-up may require tests that are sufficiently invasive for the patient, such as biopsy. They are not only a problem for the patient themselves, but also require specialized personnel to analyze them and can make procedures more expensive and slower. For this reason, a group of scientists from various Australian research centers, including two Spaniards, developed microfluidic device capable of making the same type of diagnosis with just a few drops of blood.
In this way, it is possible to diagnose cancer, check how the treatment is progressing and predict possible metastases. At the moment, its developers have already patented it and published a study on it, although they have not yet begun to commercialize it.
They plan to do it in the near future, but logically, it will need to continue to be tested and refined. If all goes well, it could be a very useful tool in cancer diagnosis in the future.
What is a microfluidic device?
Before delving into the workings of this method of diagnosing cancer, it is important to keep in mind that it is microfluidic device.
These are tools that microprocessors allows measurement of very small quantities of liquid. It can be bodily fluid such as blood or urine.
Diagnosing cancer with a few drops of blood
This device builds on previous research showing that tumor cells consume a lot of glucose. They do this in a process in which, in addition, a large number lactate, which is the ionized form of lactic acid. As a result, environmental acidification occurs, which is measured by this microfluidic device.
It contains 38,400 cameras which, based on these measurements, are capable of isolation and sorting of active tumor cellsthat consume glucose. Once isolated, they can be subjected to genetic and molecular analysis to make a much more accurate diagnosis, allowing for individualized treatment.
It does not matter that the ratio of tumor cells to healthy cells is very low. This device is able to find them. In addition, it can detect those tumor cells that migrate to other organs, causing a terrible tumor. metastases.
Very useful in a clinical setting
Biopsy is usually much more expensive and needs to be checked qualified operators. Therefore, its use in liquid media is difficult. You must send them to the laboratory and wait for the results. Instead, with this microfluidic device, cancer diagnosis can be made much faster, directly in clinical practice. Speeding up processes in these cases can be vital, which is why this device is so interesting. We will closely monitor its evolution.
Source: Hiper Textual
