Scientists have developed a new test that can be used to detect cancers and monitor the progress of cancer treatments by using a tiny drop of blood or speck of tissue smaller than the period at the end of this sentence. Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine described their novel technique in a paper published yesterday in Nature Medicine.

The technique, nanofluidic proteomic immunoassay or NIA, uses special laboratory equipment and reagents to differentiate cancer types by analyzing the levels of various cancer-specific proteins in the sample. Variations in the way cancer-related proteins are modified, or phosphorylated, can impact tumor progression.

The researchers hope that the new technique will allow cancers to be detected and cancer treatments to be assessed without the need for invasive surgical biopsies. “Surgical biopsies usually require general anesthesia and large amounts of tissue,” said the lead author, oncologist Alice Fan, MD. “If we can figure out how to go in with a needle and remove just a few cells for analysis, we could repeatedly assess how the tumor is responding to treatment.”

Currently, the gold standard for evaluating the effectiveness of many cancer treatments is to monitor shrinking of the tumor. With nanofluidic proteomic immunoassay, researchers see a promising way to determine treatment success much earlier on the cellular level.

The research group showed that their technique was effective in samples of blood cancers and are now applying their test to head and neck tumors. However, this research is still in its early stages and the widespread availability of this test is uncertain. The study was supported by the National Cancer Institute and other cancer organizations.

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_{Photo: Bethany L King, Flickr, Creative Commons}