A highly sensitive method has been developed to diagnose cancer when the tumor is still forming at the cell level. This is a revolutionary discovery, since in the early stages of the disease there are very few cancer cells in the blood, and a regular blood test for tumor markers will be negative.. “Recognizing cancer cells in the blood at an early stage is difficult because they are present in extremely low concentrations,” says Harald Fuchs, head of department at the Institute of Nanotechnology. - We're looking for a needle in a haystack. One sick cell accounts for a billion healthy "

Scientists from the Institute of Nanotechnology propose to detect cancer cells using the Microarray platform. Blood is passed through this platform (a kind of lattice) and thus pathological cells are filtered. “With this method we achieve a high probability of recognition - about 85% of the filtered cells are really cancerous,” says Michael Hirtz from the group of young scientists at the Institute of Nanotechnology. "

Surface structures with biotin-labeled target cells are stamped onto the Microarray platform. When blood passes through the platform, cancer cells “stick” to the target cells. “The tumor cells dock with the target cells according to the key-lock principle, the rest (healthy) cells will simply be washed away,” Hirtz explains the principle of the method.. In order to be able to check the maximum number of cells, there is a special structure in the channel that directs the blood to the platform, which constantly beats the blood.

The method can be used during the diagnosis of various types of cancer. Cells are usually examined from the blood, less often from other body fluids.

In addition to being of great importance for early diagnosis of cancer, the advantage of the new method is that by the number of filtered cancer cells, one can judge the effectiveness of the therapy prescribed to the patient and predict how the disease will proceed in the future.. Also, thanks to the analysis of cells, you can choose the treatment for each patient individually..

“Although our concept is still in the development stage, there is already evidence that this method is more sensitive than the standard ones,” emphasizes Mr. Fuchs.

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