Jan 8, 2016 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Pathologists will be interested to learn that this latest version of the acoustic tweezer device requires about five hours to identify the CTCs in a sample of blood
Medical laboratory leaders and pathologists are well aware that circulating tumor cells (CTCs) released by primary tumors into the bloodstream are fragile and easily damaged. Many studies have sought to find ways to separate CTCs from surrounding cells. Such a process could then be used as an early-detection biomarker to detect cancer from a sample of blood.
One team of researchers believe it has a way to accomplish this. These researchers are using sound waves to gently detect and isolate CTCs in blood samples. In turn, this could make it possible to diagnose cancer using “liquid biopsies” as opposed to invasive conventional biopsies.
Researchers from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in collaboration with researchers from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) have developed a method for using acoustic tweezers and sound waves to separate blood-borne cancer cells from white blood cells. The research team believes this new device could one day replace invasive biopsies, according to a CMU article. (more…)
Jan 28, 2015 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology, Management & Operations
Innovative device uses acoustic sound waves to gently separate circulating cancer cells from white blood cells
In many respects, the ability to separate and identify circulating tumor cells (CTCs) is one of the holy grails of cancer diagnostics. It is widely believed that a clinical laboratory test that can effectively identify CTCs would contribute to earlier detection of cancer and improved outcomes for caner patients.
Pathologists will be interested to learn about a useful new tool that can flag circulating tumor cells. Researchers say that this approach enables them to determine if a cancerous tumor is going to spread, without tagging tumor cells with harsh chemicals. This gentler alternative to current diagnostic methods involves an innovative device that uses “tilted” sound waves to sort tumor cells from white blood cells, noted a report in Headlines & Global News.
This device is about the size of a cell phone. It was developed by a team of scientists from the Pennsylvania State University (PSU), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
Their research was funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The research study was published by PNAS, the journal of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, January 5, 2015. (more…)
Oct 3, 2014 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Instruments & Laboratory Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Researchers at two different universities find circulating tumor cells in blood specimens and suggest that CTCs might be incorporated into medical laboratory tests for detecting cancer
One goal of many research initiatives is to develop a clinical laboratory test which can detect circulating tumor cells (CTC) in blood. This would be a less invasive method for testing and it is hoped such a test could detect cancer at a much earlier stage, when treatment can be much more successful.
Much effort is being put into developing what pathologists call a “liquid biopsy.” Recently, researchers at The University of Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK) and at Stanford University in the United States each published articles in Nature Medicine offering compelling data about the role blood tests could play in the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. (more…)
Aug 17, 2012 | Digital Pathology, Instruments & Equipment, Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Operations, Laboratory Pathology
Pathology groups and clinical labs could use the world’s fastest camera to diagnose cancer at earlier stages
There’s a new optical microscope that can detect rogue cancer cells. It was developed by engineers at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). The achievement could create new diagnostic capabilities for pathology and clinical laboratory medicine.
New Instrument Detects Circulating Tumor Cells
The target for this new high-speed microscope are Circulating cancer tumor cells (CTC). CTCs are the precursors to metastasis and metastatic cancer accounts for about 90% of cancer mortalities. However, CTCs are difficult to find and identify. Among a billion healthy cells, only a minute number of CTCs exist. (more…)
Oct 13, 2010 | Laboratory Management and Operations, Laboratory News, Laboratory Pathology
Surgical pathologists could gain new tool to diagnose many types of cancers
It might soon be possible to determine the HER2 status of breast cancer patients from blood samples rather than tissue biopsies. If this new technology proves feasible, it would give surgical pathologists and medical laboratories a different, and possibly less complex, methodology to use when assessing a case of breast cancer.
In its report about the study, Medscape Medical News, wrote that “HER2 status derived from circulating tumor cells (CTCs) from breast cancer patients was generally concordant with that derived from tumor tissue” and that “CTCs could prove to be an alternative to biopsies for assessing tumor tissue for biomarker status.”
(more…)
