Tag Archives: technology

New way to use electric fields to deliver cancer treatment

Called iontophoresis, the technique delivers high concentrations of chemotherapy to select areas, reducing the risk of damaging healthy tissue, according to a study this week in Science Translational Medicine. “A big challenge with many drugs is getting them where they need to go,” said Lissett Bickford, an assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics and the Department of Mechanical Engineering, “This technology basically forces drugs directly to and through the tumor, allowing all cancer cells in the treatment zone to get that exposure.” Bickford, who now directs the Medical Devices and Drug Delivery Lab at the Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science at Virginia Tech, participated in the study during her postdoctoral fellowship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she worked with lead author Joseph DeSimone, the Chancellor’s Eminent Professor of Chemistry. Chemotherapy kills cancer cells, but it’s toxic to healthy cells, too. When it’s injected into the bloodstream, only a small amount of the drug actually gets to the tumor. …

How breast cancer cells break free to spread in body

A gene normally involved in the regulation of embryonic development can trigger the transition of cells into more mobile types that can spread without regard for the normal biological controls that restrict metastasis, the new study shows. Analysis of downstream signaling pathways of this gene, called SNAIL, could be used to identify potential targets for scientists who are looking for ways to block or slow metastasis. “This gene relates directly to the mechanism that metastatic cancer cells use to move from one location to another,” said Michelle Dawson, an assistant professor in the School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Georgia Institute of Technology…

Tumor-analysis technology enables speedier treatment decisions for bowel cancer patients

A novel medical-imaging technology, TexRAD, which analyses the texture of tumors, has been shown in trials to enable early diagnosis of those bowel-cancer patients not responding to the standard cancer therapy better than other available tumor markers. Furthermore, the TexRAD markers showed the ability to assess at an early stage the likelihood of survival, distinguishing patients who will have a good prognosis from those having poor prognosis. Dr Balaji Ganeshan, one of the Sussex academics whose research led to the development of the technology, said: “By using TexRAD to scan for subtle anomalies in a tumor’s texture, researchers have been able to spot more quickly when treatments are — or are not — working and adjust treatment accordingly. “And because TexRAD simply provides an additional layer of software analysis of the MRI and CT scans that already exist as part of routine clinical practice, it is non-invasive from the patient’s point of view and potentially cost-effective to the healthcare provider.” The technology is being evaluated in a number of research institutions and university hospitals around the world. …

New molecular imaging technology could improve bladder-cancer detection — ScienceDaily

The researchers identified a protein known as CD47 as a molecular imaging target to distinguish bladder cancer from benign tissues. In the future, this technique could improve bladder cancer detection, guide more precise cancer surgery and reduce unnecessary biopsies, therefore increasing cancer patients’ quality of life. The work is described in a paper that will be published Oct. 29 in Science Translational Medicine…

New hope for potential prostate cancer patients — ScienceDaily

The only place in the Southeast offering the MRI-US image fusion technique is at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Program for Personalized Prostate Cancer Care. It is estimated that 2014 will see more than 240,000 new cases of prostate cancer, and more than 29,000 deaths from the disease, according to the National Cancer Institute…

Two-color barcodes: Dynamic duo to fight crime, cancer

So-called lanthanide-doped upconversion materials are highly promising for applications against crime and cancer as they have adjustable morphologies and tunable output wavelengths — they can also be fabricated by inexpensive processes that are easily scaled up. To date, single-crystal nanocrystals made from these materials have been impractical as multicolor barcodes because their tiny size makes them too small to be observed using conventional optical microscopes. …

Fine tuning nanoparticles for the medical industry

The Nanoparticles by Design Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University is trying to develop new particles with unprecedented properties that still meet these requirements. Recently, Dr. Jeong-Hwan Kim took one step forward when he experimented with a new type of nanomaterial: the nanosheet. Specifically, he designed a strong, stable, and optically traceable smart 2-D material that responds to pH, or the acidity or basicity of its surrounding environment…

Genetic test would help cut bowel cancer spread, research suggests

In a major study, Dr Ian Frayling from Cardiff University’s School of Medicine and researchers from the University of Exeter’s Medical School assessed the effectiveness of introducing a UK-wide screening program for a genetic condition known as Lynch Syndrome. Lynch syndrome is caused by changes in genes which check the spelling in DNA. The condition increases the risk of people developing cancer, particularly bowel cancer and cancers of the womb and ovaries later in life. …