Artificial Nose Sniffs Out Cancer
Professor H. Haick and his team at Technion, the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa, have created an artificial "nose" which may be used in the future as a tool for the differential diagnosis of head and neck cancer and possibly as a screening tool. The Nanoscale Artificial Nose, or NA-NOSE, uses nanomaterials to recognize patterns of molecules in the exhaled breath of those with head and neck cancer.
Specifically, the device uses five gold nanoparticle sensors linked to a computer which can recognize the patterns specific to volatile chemicals specific to these types of cancer. Due to the small size of the nanoparticle sensors, each less than a thousandth the width of a human hair, relatively few of the volatile chemicals are needed to change the electrical properties of the sensor. According to Technion, the sensors are up to a thousand times more sensitive and significantly faster than current state-of-the-art sensors. This high sensitivity is important since the majority of exhaled breath is actually water vapor.
Effective diagnosis techniques for head and neck cancer would be a large leap for the medical community. Head and neck cancer affect the lip, the mouth, the nasal cavity, sinuses, salivary glands, pharynx and larynx and is the eighth most common cancer in the world. Due to a lack of screening methods, this type of cancer is often diagnosed late. If the NA-NOSE can be used as an effective screening method, doctors could discover the disease earlier and provide better treatment options for those with head and neck cancer.
This article was specifically interesting to me due to the prevalence of cancer in my family. Throughout my life many of my relatives have had cancer and any tool which could be used for earlier detection would be a great help. This article was also interesting due to its implications for my future. Since I am planning on becoming a doctor, I could actually use this technology one day to help diagnose cancer.
Article: Artificial Nose Sniffs Out Cancer
Specifically, the device uses five gold nanoparticle sensors linked to a computer which can recognize the patterns specific to volatile chemicals specific to these types of cancer. Due to the small size of the nanoparticle sensors, each less than a thousandth the width of a human hair, relatively few of the volatile chemicals are needed to change the electrical properties of the sensor. According to Technion, the sensors are up to a thousand times more sensitive and significantly faster than current state-of-the-art sensors. This high sensitivity is important since the majority of exhaled breath is actually water vapor.
Effective diagnosis techniques for head and neck cancer would be a large leap for the medical community. Head and neck cancer affect the lip, the mouth, the nasal cavity, sinuses, salivary glands, pharynx and larynx and is the eighth most common cancer in the world. Due to a lack of screening methods, this type of cancer is often diagnosed late. If the NA-NOSE can be used as an effective screening method, doctors could discover the disease earlier and provide better treatment options for those with head and neck cancer.
This article was specifically interesting to me due to the prevalence of cancer in my family. Throughout my life many of my relatives have had cancer and any tool which could be used for earlier detection would be a great help. This article was also interesting due to its implications for my future. Since I am planning on becoming a doctor, I could actually use this technology one day to help diagnose cancer.
Article: Artificial Nose Sniffs Out Cancer
posted by Matt Wilcox at 11:28 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home