Breast Cancer Research

Mammography fails to find 10-25% of tumors, therefore making it not a completely effective screening for breast cancer. However, a team of researchers from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and Cancer Research and Treatment Center, Senior Scientific LLC, and the Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies facility at Sandia National Laboratories have created a device that is more sensitive than mammograms. They created nanoprobes by attaching iron-oxide magnetic particles to antibodies against HER-2, a protein expressed in 30% of breast cancer cases. Using these tiny protein-iron particles the team was able to distinguish between cells with HER-2 and those without and were able to find HER-2 cancer cells in biopsies from mice. In their final test the team used a synthetic breast to determine the potential sensitivity of their system. This method of detection also is radiation-free so it is safer.

Original article:

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11293902/1/8220breast-cancer-research8221-publishes-key-study-cancer-sensing-technology-is-radiation-free-and-100-x-more-sensitive-than-mammograms.html