E-nose in development to sniff out cancer cells
Minimally invasive AI tool shows promise in identifying pancreatic and ovarian tumours
tool that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to “ sniff ”
A vapours emanating from blood samples and identify cancer cells has been shown to have 95 percent accuracy .
The test , which distinguishes between benign and malignant pancreatic and ovarian cancer cells , learns to decipher a mixture of volatile organic compounds ( VOCs ) released from blood plasma samples .
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Penn ’ s Perelman School of Medicine believe it could serve as a non-invasive approach to screen for the hard-to-detect cancers .
Although the results are from an early study , they are very promising and show that these tumours can be identified at both advanced and the earliest stages . If its development advances to a clinical setting , the test could potentially be done with a standard blood draw that is part of an annual physical .
The electronic olfaction — “ e-nose ” — system is equipped with nanosensors calibrated to detect the composition of VOCs , which all cells emanate . Previous studies have demonstrated that VOCs released from tissue and plasma from ovarian cancer patients are distinct from those released from samples of patients with benign tumours .
The tool ’ s pattern recognition approach is similar to the way people ’ s own sense of smell works , in that a distinct mixture of compounds tells the brain what it is smelling . The tool was trained and tested to identify the VOC patterns associated with both cancer cells and those from healthy blood samples in 20 minutes or less .
Sarcoma cells may hold key to preventing cancer metastasis
Finding could lead to treatments that break protective shield of tumour particles
Abreakthrough discovery could potentially prevent cancer cells from spreading beyond their primary tumour site .
The finding provides new insight into what triggers the process that allows cancer cells to survive while travelling through the body in the bloodstream .
It came as researchers investigated Ewing sarcoma , an aggressive and often fatal childhood cancer . They found that cells from the tumour are able to develop a shield that protects them in the bloodstream as they search for a new place to settle , or metastasise .
While there has been other research into the genetic reasons a tumour mutates and spreads , the researchers found that Ewing sarcoma cells influence a naturally occurring gene known as IL1RAP to create a protein protective shield on the surface of the cell .
The researchers , from the University of British Columbia , believe that this is also likely to be the case for other types of cancer cells . The finding means that treatments can be developed to target IL1RAP without producing toxic side effects in non-cancer cells .
“ You might think that a tumour cell could readily survive in the bloodstream , but it ’ s actually a very harsh environment ,” said the study ’ s senior author , Dr Poul Sorensen , in a statement .
“ What we found was that Ewing sarcoma cells are able to develop an antioxidant response that shields them and allows them to survive as they circulate .
“ What ’ s exciting about this study is that , if we can target the cells in circulation , then maybe we can prevent metastasis from occurring . So that ’ s the really big goal of this research ,” he added .
20 JUNE 2021 GlobalHealthAsiaPacific . com