A team of scientists from LLC, Senior Scientific, School of Medicine and Cancer Research and Treatment Center-University of Mexico, Sandia National Laboratories-based Integrated Nanotechnologies Facility designed nanoprobes to enable differentiation between cells having HER-2 and the cells not having HER-2. They also succeeded in identifying HER-2 cancer cells while conducting biopsies from mice.
Mammography is capable of detecting very tiny tumors hence has been a life-saving technology. However, using mammography it is not possible to find nearly 10 to 25 % of the tumors and it is also difficult to differentiate between malignant and benign types of tumors.
The nanoprobes were designed by binding antibodies against HER-2 with iron-oxide magnetic particles. HER-2 is an over-expressed protein present in around 30% of breast cancer patients. The research findings have been published in the journal Breast Cancer Research by BioMed Central providing an innovative and highly sensitive technique using superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) sensors and magnetic nanoprobes targeted on the tumor. During the last testing phase, the team tried their system on a synthetic breast to evaluate its potential sensitivity.
According to Dr Helen Hathaway, it has been possible to precisely identify 1 million cells at a depth of 4.5 cm. This is around 1000 times fewer cells than the tumor size in the breast and offers 100 times better sensitivity when compared to mammography. The system is advantageous because the SQUID sensors can detect low frequency magnetic fields that renders dense breast tissue transparent. However in traditional mammography imaging, dense breast tissue is masked, she added.
The system, if further refined, will enable not just tumor to be detected but will also allow classification based on protein expression. Using this classification, it is possible to determine progression of disease, refine treatment procedures and ensure higher patient survival rates.