This is the headline from an article in the July 30th issue of Time about
a new way of finding cancer cells that might have been left behind by the scalpel.
Researchers at Seattle's Fred Hutcheson Cancer research center have come up with a new way to find cancer cells after surgery. They call it molecular "paint" After surgery, they use a special camera that captures near infrared photons to look and see any stray cells left behind..
So far they have illuminated 5 different kinds of cancer cells, 2 being colon and PROSTATE cancer cells.
The new process can indentify and detect tumors as small as 200 cells, current MRI scans can only pick up tumors with starting at 1 million cells.
This will help Drs. detect tumors before they affect lymph nodes and other surrounding tissues.
Human testing has not been started and won't begin until next year. All testing has been done on animnals.
Great news, but wonder how many years before the FDA approves this!!!!!!!!!!!
Have a great day.
Ron