A magnetic wire used to snag hard to capture tumour cells from blood vessels could prove to be a swift tactic for early cancer detection.
The wire attracts special magnetic nanoparticles engineered to glom onto tumour cells in the blood if a tumour is present in the body.
With these tumour cells essentially magnetised the wire can lure the cells out of the free flowing blood stream.
It could also be used in any other disease in which there are blood cells or molecules of interest.
The technique could also help doctors check a patient’s response to cancer treatment If the therapy is working ,tumour cells in the blood should fall as the tumour shrinks. Circulating tumour cells which are very often scarce can serve as cancer biomarkers.
_Express_