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Cancer diagnosis as simple as a pregnancy test

posted by LaminatorX on Wednesday February 26 2014, @05:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the Negative-never-felt-so-good dept.

AnonTechie writes:

"A paper strip can sample urine for signs of tumors in the body. The cancer-detecting strip could one day make it simpler and more affordable to detect some cancers at an early stage. Unlike communicable infections like HIV and tuberculosis, signals from tumor proteins are difficult to detect. To get around that problem, the researchers created nano-scale biomarkers that can be injected into the bloodstream. Each marker is designed to interact with specific proteins that are produced by cancer cells. When the two meet, the proteins snip off tiny fragments of the marker. Those fragments eventually find their way into the urine. The test works like a pregnancy test; a person urinates on a paper strip coated with antibodies that can detect the marker fragments. If the fragments are present, the paper displays a line indicating the presence of cancer tissue in the body. Altogether, the process takes about an hour."

[ED Note: Link is to an abstract. PDF with more detailed info here.]

 
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  • (Score: 4, Informative) by c0lo on Wednesday February 26 2014, @06:59PM

    by c0lo (156) on Wednesday February 26 2014, @06:59PM (#7610)

    The interesting question of course would be what the price of such a test would be

    No info on the injectable part, but some info on the companion test in the linked PDF:

    Companion Diagnostic Cost Analyses.
    Approximate costs for materials and labor costs to produce LFAs were based on estimates from a technical document by LFA materials' manufacturer Bangs Laboratories (5). The majority of costs are packaging and assembly, and the major variable costs are due to the specific antibodies used and region of manufacture, resulting in a raw material cost of roughly $0.60 and an assembled product cost of less than $2.

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  • (Score: 1) by Yow on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:29PM

    by Yow (1637) on Wednesday February 26 2014, @07:29PM (#7632)

    Money is always the thing. Healthcare as business is always in the mix. Can't just evaluate the science anymore...