MIT develops breakthrough cancer detection and diagnosis

MIT develops breakthrough cancer detection and diagnosis.

Another breakthrough is cancer detection and mesothelioma diagnosis has been developed, albeit in its infancy stage, by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This biomarker amplification system “could become a major breakthrough for early detection of cancers like mesothelioma,” reports Asbestos.com. 

MIT team started developing nanoparticles in order to amplify specific proteins in cancer cells. These cancer cells remained undetected until recently, thus, the disease and its progression has been very difficult to follow.

Biomarker detection is a vital method in detecting, although this remained almost impossible for many years.

“There is a desperate search for biomarkers, for early detection or disease prognosis, or looking at how the body responds to therapy,” Sangeeta Bhatia, lead researcher and professor of Health Sciences and Technology at MIT, as well as a member of MIT’s Institute for Integrative Cancer Research, said. “The synthetically produced nanoparticles can interact with the cancer proteins and produce thousands of biomarkers that can be easily detected in a patient’s urine.”

Early Diagnosis Important

Despite the advancement of technology, particularly those related to cancer detection and prevention, experts are still in limbo because there are “no reliable, non-invasive screening tests for many cancers, including mesothelioma.” Perhaps, so far, the best and most practical thing that an individual could do to at least minimize the effect of the malady is to seek early detection given that it offers a much wider scope of treatment options.

For mesothelioma patients, their condition usually remains unnoticed until the disease has progressed to a level that’s beyond the capacity of any medication. Mesothelioma symptoms usually mimic those of not-so-threatening illnesses, while if a patient wishes to seek accurate diagnosis, he would have to wait for several months before his condition is eventually discovered.

Last year saw another breakthrough in the mesothelioma community after a new protein biomarker named fibulin-3 was discovered. This was hailed for its reliability to “predict the presence of mesothelioma cancer cells” through blood sample or from pleural fluid in patients. Findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The MIT discovery, meanwhile, would make it easier and faster to screen those who are in the high-risk occupation, especially those who are frequently exposed to asbestos. Only a small fraction of “those exposed to asbestos actually develop mesothelioma.” This translates to more around 3,000 Americans diagnosed with mesothelioma every year.

Amplification of Biomarkers Is Key

Batia reveals that “the cell is making biomarkers, but it has limited production capacity. Researchers at MIT have succeeded in testing their nanoparticles on the early stages of colorectal cancer using lab mice. Right now, they are trying to use the biomarker to detect tumor response with chemotherapy.