Chinese scientists have built a hand-held device to detect early signs of lung cancer from just a drop of blood, a groundbreaking advance that could enable easier and more timely diagnosis.
Cancer detection typically requires bulky instruments, confining testing to research labs or hospitals. The instruments work by detecting tiny changes in the properties of light, like wavelength, caused by the presence of sample molecules. The changes can convey information about biological functions or diseases but detecting them requires highly sensitive components that are often quite large to carry around.
The new device contains a sensor that works by determining how molecules bend light rather than how they change its properties. It uses a 3D chip made from a special material that manipulates light in ways natural materials do not.
The device uses a light emitter, a light detector and a specially engineered material fabricated on 8-inch semiconductor wafers and then mass-produced.
This approach, scientists say, moves the development of cancer sensors from single laboratory devices to low-cost at-home detection systems.
“This greatly simplifies the instrument design and makes the sensing process more compatible with portable diagnostic systems,” they write in Science X Dialog.
To test the device, scientists used it to detect levels of vesicles, ultrasmall bubble-like cell components found in extremely low concentrations in blood and other body fluids.
Analysis of vesicle concentration can help diagnose early-stage disease.
The new sensor was able to detect vesicles at extremely low concentrations within just 15 minutes.
This corresponds to a nearly “10,000-fold improvement” in sensitivity compared with standard lab assays, scientists say.
Researchers further tested the device by analysing 170 human serum samples and found that it could distinguish early lung cancer samples from healthy tissue.
They found the device could achieve an accuracy of up to 95 per cent as against about 75 per cent for traditional Elisa lab methods.
However, they cautioned that there was “still a long path” for the prototype to become a widely used medical device.
They called for larger studies to validate the technology across more patient groups. “The system will also need further engineering before routine clinical or home-use deployment,” they wrote in a study published in the journal Nature Photonics.
