Scientists have developed a saliva test that can screen for breast cancer, showing promising results in experimental tests, according to a recent study.
Publishing their findings in the journal Vacuum Science and Technology B, researchers from the University of Florida and National Yang Ming University of Transportation in Taiwan say the new handheld device can detect breast cancer biomarkers from a small sample of saliva.
“Imagine medical professionals performing breast cancer screenings in the community or in a hospital,” said Wan xiao – hsuan, a doctoral student in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Florida and lead author of the study. “Our device is a good choice because it’s portable, about the size of your hand, and reusable. It takes less than five seconds to test each sample, which makes it very efficient.”
This new tool works by placing a saliva sample on a test strip, which is treated with antibodies specific for cancer biomarkers. Electrical impulses are sent to a contact point on the biosensor device. The signal is measured and converted into digital information about how much of the biomarker is present. The results are quick and easy to interpret, Wan said.
During testing, the device distinguished between healthy breast tissue, early breast cancer and advanced breast cancer in a group of 21 women. Their biosensor design uses common components such as glucose test strips and the open-source hardware and software platform Arduino.
Breathing out to detect breast cancer
Israeli researchers have invented a more accurate way to screen for early breast cancer. (Comput Biol Med. May 1, 2018, online edition)
By using two different electronic nose gas sensors to detect exhaled gas, along with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry to quantify the composition of urine, the researchers separated the relevant data obtained as a biomarker to more accurately identify breast cancer.
The researchers were able to identify the unique breathing patterns of breast cancer patients using the not-so-expensive commercial electronic nose, a method that is more than 95 percent accurate. In addition, they retested urine samples from healthy people and patients diagnosed with breast cancer and found an 85 percent accuracy rate.
The researchers concluded that breast cancer survival is strongly correlated with the sensitivity of tumor detection; accurate methods that can detect those smaller tumors earlier are valuable, and the new method for detecting urine and exhaled gas requires the use of inexpensive, commercially available devices that are noninvasive, convenient, and can be tested in a variety of settings.
The researchers say that the use of a cheap and economical electronic nose has been shown to be effective in screening out patients with early breast cancer. It is hoped that in the future it will also be possible to screen for other tumors from analyzing exhaled gas and urine samples.
Urine to detect breast cancer
In a 2015 research paper published in the international journal BMC Cancer, researchers from the University of Freiburg developed a new technique to help detect breast cancer by analyzing urine samples to determine the levels of microRNAs, molecules that regulate cellular metabolism, which are normally dysregulated in cancer cells. By determining the composition of microRNAs in urine, the researchers were able to make the technique 91 percent successful in diagnosing breast cancer.
Breast cancer affects about 1.7 million women worldwide and is one of the most common cancers in women, causing more than 520,000 deaths each year. Until now, however, researchers have generally used mammography or ultrasound to diagnose cancer in the breast tissue, but exposure to radiation from the breast tissue has often led to recurrence of the disease in many patients.
In this paper, the researchers developed this new technique to detect breast cancer by using urine samples. The technique is based on the altered metabolism of the patient’s body, and the researchers measured the concentration of nine microRNAs molecules in urine, which regulate cellular metabolism, and after comparing healthy samples with diseased samples, the researchers found that the levels of four microRNAs showed significant differences. showed significant differences in their levels.
Prof. Stickeler pointed out that the properties of microRNAs in the urine of breast cancer patients can be specifically modified, so microRNAs may help us to screen for breast cancer, and of course the technique developed by the researchers has a diagnostic accuracy of 91% with the help of microRNA properties. The researchers have applied for a patent for this technology and they encourage more women to use this new technology for early diagnosis of breast cancer. After diagnosis, the malignant tissue of the patient will be surgically removed, unlike in the past when doctors would remove the patient’s entire breast tissue, and the researchers hope to optimize and improve this new technology through more research so that it can better serve human health. The researchers hope to optimize this new technology through more research so that it can better serve human health.