Fluorescent probe 'can light up cancers'
A Nobel prize-winning scientist has developed a new process which can light up tumours in sufferers, potentially providing new ways of diagnosis and treatment.
Dr Roger Tsien, professor of pharmacology, chemistry and biochemistry at the University of California, San Diego and the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, has previously being hailed for his innovative technique which enables healthcare professionals to identify tumours in patients.
Now, he and a team from the facility have created biological probes that can stick to and light up tumours in mice.
Using this technique, scientists were able to spot and remove more cancerous tissue in mice injected with the fluorescent probes than in those mice without them, increasing survival by 500 per cent.
"The development of biological probes that can guide surgeons, rather than depending only on feel and normal 'white light' to see, can provide tools to navigate the body on a molecular level," said first author Dr Quyen Nguyen, assistant professor of surgery at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine.
Experts at the facility said that cancerous tissue is often missed during surgery, but this, and the subsequent recurrence or development of cancer, could be avoided thanks to the new technique.
Dr Nguyen said that in the future, a cocktail of "personalised probes" may be designed for individual types of cancers.
If the new nanoparticle-
The experts concluded: "If surgeons can completely remove a cancer, it may mean a patient could be cured quickly, and at relatively low cost when compared to long-term chemotherapy."
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