Coded nanoparticles can help detect and diagnose cancers without biopsy, found a research team that has developed the new method and successfully detected multiple forms of breast cancer in mice in laboratory testing.
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‘Coded nanoparticles have been used to detect and diagnose cancers without biopsy. The new method successfully detected multiple forms of breast cancer in mice in laboratory testing.’
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"This technique has the potential to provide a low-invasive method of determining if breast cancer is present, as well as the form of it, without the need to take tissue samples via biopsy," joint-lead author Fan Zhang from Fudan University added. 
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Light absorbing and scattering elements such as blood, muscle and cartilage produce too much interference making it difficult to determine if a range of disease biomarkers are present, suggests the study published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
The research team's solution was to engineer special nanoparticles which emit light for a set period of time.
"It is the duration of the light-emission and the biomarker reaction to this timed amount of light that produces a clearly identifiable molecular signature. This enables high-contrast optical biomedical imaging that can detect multiple disease biomarkers all at one time," Lu said.
Source-IANS