A noninvasive device using laser, ultrasound and phone technologies can detect and destroy circulating tumor cells (CTCs) in a cancer patient's bloodstream without drawing any blood, according to a study published June 12 in Science Translational Medicine.
Scientists at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock used the Cytophone device on patients with and without melanoma. The device correctly identified all 19 healthy patients, and detected CTCs in 27 of 28 melanoma patients. Due to its high level of sensitivity, the tool was able to detect CTCs in patients with melanoma tumors not visible on the skin, due to either small size or surgical removal.
The Cytophone uses photoacoustic flow cytometry to scan a patient's entire blood supply for CTCs, which are often sparse and difficult to detect, with the ability to identify even just one CTC per liter of blood, a detection rate approximately 1,000 times more sensitive than existing methods. Those methods require blood draws, allowing them to search for CTCs in only a small amount of blood.
Once CTCs are detected, the Cytophone also destroys the cancerous cells without harming any surrounding cells. As a result, the device is able to prevent metastasis by stopping the disease from traveling to other parts of the body through the bloodstream.
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