Cancer is a disease that scientists are really working hard to tackle and in a news that will bring cheers to the medical field, Researchers in Australia have developed a 10-minute test that can detect the presence of cancer cells anywhere in the human body.
Indeed, this test is so convenient and affordable that in the not-too-distant future we could all be carrying around our own personal cancer detector – on our cell phones.
The 10-minute test, announced in a study published by Nature on Tuesday, can determine whether a tumour is present in the human body by identifying a unique DNA nanostructure that is common to all types of cancer.
Professor Matt Trau a professor at the University of Queensland, said in a statement:
“Discovering that cancerous DNA molecules formed entirely different 3D nanostructures from normal circulating DNA was a breakthrough that has enabled an entirely new approach to detect cancer non-invasively in any tissue type including blood, This led to the creation of inexpensive and portable detection devices that could eventually be used as a diagnostic tool, possibly with a mobile phone”.
The technology has a long way to go since currently, we can only determine the presence of cancer and not its stage or disease type.
The study is published in the journal Nature Communications.
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