When it comes to surviving cancer, early detection is always a positive factor in the patients chances of survival. Given that each year, over a hundred thousand people in the United States die from lung cancer, any research or breakthrough that can reduce this tragic statistic is an important one. Having lost my own father and uncle to lung cancer, it’s an issue that’s very dear to my heart, and so I try to keep myself informed about breakthroughs in the area.
That’s why I was excited to read an article in Nature Nanotechnology, arguably one of the worlds finest scientific journals. Researchers at the University of Missouri have made a discovery that will give doctors a much earlier warning signal that their patient is developing lung cancer. It’s a type of screening test, something that has been missing from the field of lung cancer up until now.
The Missouri researchers took samples of blood plasma from the patients and used advanced medical technology to extract small RNA fragments in the plasma. These fragments are found to be significantly elevated in lung cancer patients, and so the presence of this RNA in plasma is an indicator that the patient is at high risk for the disease. By putting a small amount of the blood plasma through a thin membrane containing tiny non-sized holes and then applying a current, the scientists were able to measure changes that occur when the cancer-related RNA strands passed through the pore.
This discovery gives scientists a way of screening patients for long cancer that’s non-invasive and while it’s not proof-positive of cancer, it gives doctors a big flashing warning sign that they should apply other tests right away – it might just save their patients life. The researchers hope to one day use this technology to detect other type of cancer RNAs, besides just the ones associated with lung cancer. If they are successful, the days of patients innocently and unknowingly living with fatal cancer until it’s too late to treat may be a thing of the past, and that would be a wonderful thing.
The source of this article can be found at: Yong Wang, Dali Zheng, Qiulin Tan, Michael X. Wang, Li-Qun Gu. “Nanopore-based detection of circulating microRNAs in lung cancer patients”. Nature Nanotechnology, 2011; DOI: 10.1038/nnano.2011.147