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ICYMI: Pigeon cancer detection, pill stethoscope and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-362475").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Researchers were able to train pigeons to choose whether medical images contain a benign or malignant tumor with 99% accuracy. MIT scientists made a biomonitoring pill that patients can swallow to collect their pulse, breathing rate and internal temperature. And musicians have a new option in the form of the tiny Motus instrument, which recognizes shaking and twirling to create music out of movement.
Stanford scientists get a little closer to a medical tricorder
Being able to identify problems with a person's body without subjecting them to invasive procedures is the fantasy of all Star Trek doctors. There's even a prize offering a fortune to anyone who can effectively recreate the tricorder technology out in the real world. Now, Stanford scientists think that they've developed a system that, in time, could be used to spot cancerous tumors from a foot away.
Colorful 3D cancer models show how tumors grow
Cancer is a terrible thing, but a beautiful representation of it might just help health care experts treat the disease more effectively. An international team of researchers has developed a 3D tumor simulation that shows how cancerous cells grow and mutate unevenly over time. Each color you see in a given model represents a different mutation -- the more successful one of these aberrations is at migrating and reproducing, the more its color dominates the tumor. The simulation is also much better than previous models at representing the overall shapes of tumors, illustrating the bulges that come as the cancer rapidly outgrows any nearby healthy cells.
Researchers may have found a cancer cell's 'off' switch
Aside from their abnormal growth rates, cancerous cells aren't that much different from normal healthy tissue. That's why radiation and chemo treatments can't effectively target just tumors. However, a team of researchers from the Mayo Clinic believe they've discovered a mechanism that can rein in cancer's uninhibited growth by retraining these wayward cells to die like they're supposed to.
Light therapy now treats even the deepest cancer
Light therapy is a safe, easy way to kill cancer and treat other diseases, but it's normally limited by its nature to illnesses that are skin-deep. Washington University researchers aren't daunted, however. They've developed a phototherapy method that brings light directly to tumor cells, no matter how deep they are. The technique has you ingesting sugar combined with radioactive fluorine and light-sensitive, cancer-fighting nanoparticles. When you go through a PET scan, the sugar lights up and promptly kicks the nanoparticles into high gear. Effectively, this is a Trojan horse -- since tumors eagerly absorb sugar, they're sowing the seeds of their own demise.
Researchers develop femtosecond laser that can diagnose, blast cancerous tumors
Researchers at the University of Tennessee's Center for Laser Applications have developed a femtosecond laser that can non-invasively diagnose, map, irradiate and burn cancerous tumors. Utilizing a beam that pulses at one-quadrillionth of a second, the technology is able to seek out growths and obliterate them with an increased burst of intensity. "Using ultra-short light pulses gives us the ability to focus in a well confined region and the ability for intense radiation," says Associate Professor of Physics Christian Parigger. "This allows us to come in and leave a specific area quickly so we can diagnose and attack tumorous cells fast." The swift, precise technique can avoiding heating up adjacent, healthy tissues and has potential for use in outpatient procedures, particularly for people afflicted with brain tumors. For now, however, the scientists are working with the non-profit University of Tennessee Research Foundation to bring their tech to market. Roll past the jump for the press release and a glimpse of the laser in action.
Another reason to buy gold: nanoparticles help to kill brain tumors
Stanford scientists have used lab-made gold nanoparticles to highlight malignant tissue in the brain, making it easier for surgeons to cut out tumors while leaving healthy bits in tact. Measuring just five millionths of an inch in diameter, these tiny glistening orbs are injected into the patient and then left to bleed out through leaky blood vessels in parts of the brain that have been damaged by the disease. They then get stuck in the bad tissue itself, marking it out for the scalpel when viewed with the right type of imaging. It's not totally new -- we've actually seen gold nanotech deployed against the Big C in stem cells before, but better to be useful than avant-garde. [Brain image via Shutterstock]
Startup's headset will bathe your brain in ultrasound, might help fight cancer, too
The scientific community has spent a decade exploring ultrasound as a means of breaking through the blood-brain barrier -- a layer of tightly-packed cells that surround the brain's blood vessels, making it difficult for doctors to deliver chemotherapy and other treatments to cancer patients. Thus far, though, most ultrasound-based techniques have relied upon complex and often costly equipment, including MRI machines and infusion pumps. But researchers at a startup called Perfusion Technology think they may have come up with a less invasive, more cost-effective alternative -- a new headset designed to deliver low-intensity ultrasound therapy to the entire brain over the course of extended treatment periods. This approach differs markedly from most other methods, which typically target smaller areas of the brain with high-intensity ultrasound doses. As with most other potential breakthroughs, however, Perfusion's technique still needs to undergo some major testing. The company has already conducted several tests on animals, but the last time a similar method was tried on humans, many subjects ended up suffering from excessive bleeding. And that doesn't sound good at all.
Portable brain tumor treatment system kills cancer while you take out the trash
We've seen robots that perform brain surgery and lasers that cook tumors, and now a team of researchers are well on their way to bringing mobility to the battle against brain cancer. The NovoTTF-100A, which just received FDA approval, is basically a set of insulated electrodes, attached to an electronic box, that pumps low intensity electrical fields to the site of a freshly diagnosed GBM (glioblastoma multiforme) tumor. The fields, known as Tumor Treatment Fields (TTF), play off the electrically charged elements of cancer cells to stunt the tumor's growth, and may in some cases actually reverse it. A recent test of the system showed comparable results to chemotherapy, without the usual lineup of side effects, including nausea, anemia, fatigue, and infection. Given, patients using the system are expected to wear the thing continuously, but we'd say walking around with a cap full of electrodes is a small price to pay for giving cancer the boot. Full PR after the break.
Neurosurgeons use MRI-guided lasers to 'cook' brain tumors
In the seemingly perpetual battle to rid this planet of cancer, a team of neurosurgeons from Washington University are using a new MRI-guided high-intensity laser probe to "cook" brain tumors that would otherwise be completely inoperable. According to Dr. Eric C. Leuthardt, this procedure "offers hope to certain patients who had few or no options before," with the laser baking the cancer cells deep within the brain while leaving the good tissue around it unmarred. The best part, however, is that this is already moving beyond the laboratory, with a pair of doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital using it successfully on a patient last month. Regrettably, just three hospitals at the moment are equipped with the Monteris AutoLITT device, but if we know anything about anything related to lasers, it'll be everywhere in no time flat.
French doctors use laser to destroy brain tumor in conscious patient
Neurosurgery with robotic assistance is getting pretty old hat nowadays, so it looks like scientists are trying to up the difficulty factor by keeping their patients awake -- a team of French doctors just completed the first successful removal of malignant brain tumor from a still-conscious patient, using a computerized laser and an MRI scanner to guide the probe. The fiber-optic laser was fed into the brain through a 3mm (.12 inch) hole in the patient's skull and guided via MRI to the tumor, where it fired for two minutes and completely destroyed the cancerous tissue. Once the tumor cells were dead, the cable was removed and the patient was allowed to return home -- all within a single day. That's pretty impressive, and it comes on the heels of 15 similar trials where five out six patients who underwent the total removal procedure were cancer-free nine months after surgery. The team says further research will cost an additional two million euros to progress, but if this technique works as well as they claim after peer review, we'd guess that money won't be hard to come by.[Via Fark]
Toronto's public health department recommends kids limit mobile use
In case it wasn't already obvious that kids under the age of eight should be using cellphones strictly for emergencies, here's another reason: Toronto's public health department says so. In what might be a first in all of Canada, the agency is officially laying down recommendations that tykes be restricted to emergency calls and teens talk on their phones for no more than ten minutes at a time (good luck with that one) due to growing evidence that prolonged use could lead to brain tumors and other health-related unpleasantness later in life. Moving up the governmental food chain, Health Canada still officially recommends no restrictions, so the endless confusion over cellphone safety continues as usual.[Thanks, Thierry]
Miniscule device gets injected into tumors, tracks radiation dosage
Gurus at Purdue University have conjured up a prototype device which, when injected into a tumor, can actually track the "precise dose of radiation received and locate the exact position [of the tumor] during treatment." Currently, the needle-sized device is held within a hermetically sealed glass capillary, contains a miniature radiation dosimeter, operates without batteries and instead relies on "electrical coils placed next to the patient" for activation. As small as the RFID-enabled unit is, engineers are still hoping to create a version that is around the size of a grain of rice, and hopes are to have it in clinical trials in 2010.[Via Physorg]
Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous, you're better off smoking edition
You've heard just how dangerous holding that cellphone upside your noggin is, but this time, the research is really for real. Reportedly, an award-winning cancer expert (Dr. Vini Khurana) has concluded that mobile phones -- in the long run -- could end up killing far more Earthlings than smoking or asbestos ever could. As we've heard countless times before, this fellow is warning that heavy mobile users could end up with brain tumors that threaten their livelihood, and feels that a direct link between handset use and certain tumors will be "definitively proven" in the next decade. Additionally, he suggests that individuals avoid using the cancer generators whenever possible, and that governments and the mobile industry at large take "immediate steps" to reduce radiation exposure. You won't be laughing if he's right.[Via Digital Lifestyles]
Thieves steal 7-year-old cancer patient's PSP the day before his birthday
If you're looking for a news story to restore your faith in mankind, this ain't it -- while en route to a monthly chemotherapy treatment for a brain tumor (the day before his birthday, no less), 7-year-old Kyle Springs and his family stopped in Dallas for a Denny's breakfast. As they left the building, with unassuming bellies full of Moons Over My Hammies, they discovered their car had been burglarized, and that thieves had absconded with Kyle's backpack, medical records, medication, and PSP.The only uplifting facet of this otherwise soul-shattering tale is the fact that the Dallas police department had raised over $1,000 for Kyle within two and a half hours, replacing the PSP and games that he had lost in the parking lot heist. Unfortunately, the nefarious gentlemen who made off with the young man's handheld have yet to be brought to justice -- what kind of sentence do they assign people who steal adolescent cancer patient's portable electronics the day before their birthdays, anyways? Does Texas allow "jettisoning from an airlock into the infinite twilight of space" as an acceptable punishment?
CTC-chip isolates, analyzes rare tumor cells in bloodstream
Circulating tumor cells, which are more commonly referred to as CTCs, have thus far remained practically useless when it came to aiding in clinical decision making, but a new development could enable these rare cells to finally be used for guiding treatment. Reportedly, a crew of investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital have crafted a "microchip-based device (dubbed CTC-chip) that can isolate, enumerate and analyze CTCs from a blood sample," which has the "potential to be an invaluable tool for monitoring and guiding cancer treatment." Additionally, researchers can look forward to "better understanding the biology of cancer cells and the mechanisms of metastasis," but there's still quite a bit of work to be done before the device can be put to clinical use.[Via Physorg]
VeriChip defends its implantable microchips, promises they're safe
Man, that was quick. Just two days after reports hit the net about RFID implants being linked to cancer, VeriChip is lunging out to vehemently defend its own implantable microchip. Interestingly enough, the firm cites phrases from a number of studies to suggest that all is well and we've nothing to fear by getting one of these bad boys inserted into us, and it also makes darn sure we know the thing has been "cleared by the FDA as a Class II Medical Device." Lastly, the company has promised to continue looking at the "veracity and credibility of the studies," and noted that it would "take the necessary steps to ensure that our products remain safe to the end user." Phew, good thing, eh?
Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous, cell division edition
So apparently, virtually all existing official limits for radiation emitted by mobiles (FCC, we're looking at you) are based on the assumption that the dangerous effects of that radiation are caused by heating of the brain. Pretty big assumption, eh? A new study by Israel's Weizmann Institute of Science suggest that some "non-thermal" forces are at play, though, noting that chemicals involved in brain cell division were affected in tests on rats after just 10 minutes of exposure to cellphone radiation. Improper cell division goes hand in hand with cancer, so the finding is a rather alarming one. Of course, you know the drill: for every study that suggests phones are dangerous, we can certainly dredge up one that says they aren't -- just be forewarned that a cool brain isn't necessarily a healthy one.[Via CNET]
Cellphones are dangerous/not dangerous, no glioma edition
If you are spending a good deal of your day and night fretting about brain cancer and mobile phones, you can rest easy knowing that current thinking (read: by current, we mean for the next 15 minutes when the next study comes out) leans toward cell phones not being associated with glioma, the most common type of brain tumor. The International Journal of Cancer reports that in a study of 1,521 glioma patients and 3,301 controls, 92 percent of glioma patients and 94 percent of controls reported using mobile phones. There is, however, some evidence pointing to increased risk of glioma in people who use cell phones on the same side of their head, though the results were of "borderline statistical significance." So, what can we take from all this? A new study is likely being written as you read this that will contradict these findings, switch up that handset once in a while -- you know, left to right and such, make a game of it -- and if you are really worried, check out a wired headset.
Long-term UK cancer study about to kick off, cellphones in peril again
While we aren't claiming any prophetic abilities, it wasn't exactly hard to assume that just over a month after a thorough Danish study cleared cellphones of any wrongdoings associated with cancers and tumors, we've got a so-called expert lobbying for £3 million ($5.92 million) in funding to prove otherwise. Professor Lawrie Challis, who is in the final stages of negotiation with the Department of Health and the mobile phone industry for the aforementioned dough, seems to think that there's still a "hint of something" that could develop in long-term, heavy mobile users "after 10 years of use." Granted, he has literally books of research disproving this "hint," but as he references cases like asbestos and Hiroshima, he suggests that a study must be done now in order to prevent anything even more dramatic from cropping up in a decade or so. Reportedly, "over 200,000 volunteers, including long-term users, are to be monitored for at least five years to plot mobile phone use against any serious diseases they develop, including cancer, Parkinson's, and Alzheimer's diseases." So it seems the circus begins again, and in the meantime, let's just all cross our re-paranoid fingers in hopes that nothing goes awry (and that a counter-test shoots it down) while this study unfolds.[Via Textually]
