The Food and Drug Administration approved Endomagnetics Inc.’s magnetic tracer injection and detection system for guiding lymph node biopsies in patients with breast cancer undergoing mastectomy. In the procedure, the clinician injects a solution of dextran-coated iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (Magtrace) in the viscinity of the tumour or the areola, as is done typically with […]
Tag: Oncology
New Device Captures Circulating Tumor Cells Directly Within Blood Vessels
Circulating tumor cells (CTCs) are present in the blood of people suffering from most cancers, but because of their rarity their presence is very difficult to spot. A number of technologies have been developed in the past to capture and count CTCs (see flashbacks below), but they tend to still have a number of limitations. […]
Method Tracks How Cancer Drugs Spread to Tumor Cells
When it comes to anti-cancer drugs, it’s not only their effectiveness at killing the intended target that we want to know, but also their ability to reach and penetrate the cancer cells. Knowing whether the drug actually enters cancer cells can be as important as whether it’s effective once inside. Now researchers at Francis Crick Institute […]
Stimulation of Brain’s Reward System Leads to Reduction in Cancer Tumors
Scientists at Technion – Israel Institute of Technology have come up with a surprising way of fighting tumors and in the process showed that our brains have a role in preventing the growth of cancers. The researchers, who reported their findings in journal Nature Communications, artificially stimulated the reward system of mice stricken with cancer. […]
Embolx Announces FDA Clearance for Next Generation Sniper Balloon Occlusion Microcatheter
Embolx, a new medical device company out of Silicon Valley, develops microcatheters for arterial endoembolization procedures, and now their next-generation Sniper Balloon Occlusion Microcatheter will be available in the US. The new family of microcatheters shows significant improvement over previous devices, and offers physicians enhanced performance features to make it easier to navigate through small […]
UCLA Researchers Develop Synthetic T Cells That Mimic Function of Human Version
Cancer research has made leaps and bounds in the past few decades, but the scourge of fast-dividing cancer cells still plagues people from all walks of life. Those with cancer, their families, and survivors hang onto the hope that one day a medical breakthrough will finally rid the world of the debilitating illness. That hope […]
Hairy Frosted Glass Slides Capture Circulating Tumor Cells for Screening and Early Diagnosis
Biopsies are typically the way prostate cancer is identified, but prostate cancers also release circulating tumor cells (CTCs) that are telltale signs of the presence of the disease. Because they’re so rare and difficult to separate from whole blood, CTCs remain rarely used for establishing diagnoses. Researchers from the Chinese Academy of Scientists have now […]
Sugar Nanoparticles Reprogram Immune Cells to Help Destroy Tumors
Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston have created drug-loaded nanoparticles made from sugar molecules that reprogrammed tumor associated macrophages into an anti-cancer phenotype that, combined with immune checkpoint blockade, caused tumor regression and increased survival in various mouse cancer models. The nanoparticles were made from cyclodextrin (a sugar molecule) cross-linked […]
New Nanopackaging for Chemo Agents for Targeted Killing of Tumors
Chemotherapy works differently in children than adults, sometimes in surprising ways. Researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology have developed special nanoscale packaging for Dasatinib (aka SPRYCEL), a chemo agent. Working with colleagues at the Hospital Sant Joan de Deu-Barcelona, they showed that using their packaging to deliver the chemo agent into mouse models with pediatric sarcomas, that […]
New Way to Inject Light into Microdisk Resonators May Allow New Diagnostics
Microdisks are special tiny resonators that trap light inside themselves and enhance the incoming light for specific applications. They rely on the whispering-gallery optical effect, similar to the sound-based effect of the same name that’s demonstrated at many children’s museums. Microdisks have great potential for assessing the state of individual cells at the point of care, […]
Advanced Cancer Diagnostics Reduce Frequency of Misdiagnoses: Interview with Precipio CEO Ilan Danieli
According to 2010-2012 data from the National Cancer Institute (NCI), 40% of men and women will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. In all its forms, cancer is known to be a clinically and emotionally challenging disease to manage. Despite the fact that each year 455 men and women per 100,000 patients are diagnosed […]
Metal Based Detector of Dopamine Receptors May Help Identify Early Signs of Cancer
At Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), researchers have created the first metal-based probes for spotting dopamine receptors. While dopamine is best known as a neurotransmitter that plays a major role in defining our mood, dopamine receptors seem to be related to certain cancers. To study this relationship, a technique that can work on living animals […]
Implantable Device to Deliver Chemo to Pancreatic Cancer Tumors
Pancreatic cancer is difficult to fight because of the challenge of delivering chemo specifically to that one organ, sparing surrounding tissue and the rest of the body. Advanced Chemotherapy Technologies, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, is working on an implant, about the size of a large coin, for direct delivery of chemo agents into the […]
IonStar Delivers Nearly Perfect Proteomics in Large Groups of People
Measuring the amount of specific proteins present in the body can help to diagnose diseases that are otherwise difficult to identify. This has been a challenge and even the best existing technology, known as MaxQuant, is not great at measuring low concentrations of proteins and performs poorly in certain situations. Now researchers at State University of New […]
Another Approval for Personalized Cellular CAR T Therapy
The FDA has given another approval to Novartis for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy KYMRIAH, a personalized cell therapy product, the development of which was originated at University of Pennsylvania. Originally approved for children and young adults with relapsed or refractory B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia, it is now also indicated for adult patients with relapsed […]
Fluorescent Particles Bind to Cancer Cells to Spot and Diagnose Tumors
Mammograms have become extremely useful in identifying suspect lesions that may be cancer, but biopsies are still required to actually find out whether the tissue is cancerous. Researchers at University of Michigan have developed a molecule, which can be delivered in pill form, that connects to cell surface receptors on certain types of cancer cells. […]
Noninvasive Brain Tumor Biopsy Using Focused Ultrasound
Unlike many other tumors, ones found in the brain are usually too dangerous to take biopsies of. Now the researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis came up with a revolutionary new way of using focused ultrasound to get tumors to release biomarkers that can then be spotted using blood samples. Thanks to […]
Remote-Controlled Signal Activates T Cells for Cancer Immunotherapy
Researchers at Georgia Tech have developed a technique to remotely activate genetically-modified T cells to attack cancer. The method employs a near-infrared laser that heats gold nanorods present in the tumor, causing local heating. This heat activates the T cells, making them more aggressive in killing cancer cells. Immunotherapies, such as T cell therapy, hold […]
Genetically Engineered Tattoo Shows Up if Person Has Cancer
As everyone knows, early diagnosis brings the best chance of fighting cancer. At ETH Zurich, a Swiss technical university, researchers genetically modified skin cells to produce a tattoo that makes itself visible only when the person wearing it has signs of cancer. The technology consists of a “synthetic gene network” that activates the production of […]
Hair-Sized Fiber-Optic Probe Can Measure Temperatures Deep Inside the Body
Researchers at the University of Adelaide have developed a tiny fiber-optic probe that can measure temperatures deep inside the body, while imaging structures in the region of interest. The probe, which has a similar thickness to a human hair, could help researchers to investigate the effects of drugs that raise temperatures in specific parts of […]