Malignant and benign cases were correctly diagnosed by combination of cytology and DNA analyses. An abnormal DNA profile defined by greater than 10 per cent cells with greater than 2c DNA or single cells with greater than 8c DNA was only seen in malignant exudates. Short-term cell culture with scanning electron microscopy could distinguish between lymphoid cells, histiocytes, fibroblasts, mesothelial cells and cancer cells.
The method used to assess the cells in the UCLA—Harvard study, developed previously by the UCLA researchers , requires little sample preparation, relying instead on the imaging of cells as they flow through microscale fluid conduits. Imagine squeezing two balloons, one filled with water and one filled with honey. The balloons would feel different and would deform differently in your grip.
The researchers used this principle on the cellular level by using a fluid grip to "squeeze" individual cells that are 10, times smaller than balloons—a technique called "deformability cytometry. Cancer cells have a different architecture and are softer than healthy cells; as a result, they "deform" differently.
Using deformability cytometry, researchers can analyze more than 1, cells per second as they are suspended in a flowing fluid, providing significantly more detail on the variations within each patient's sample than could be detected using previous physical analysis techniques. The researchers also noted that the more detailed information they obtained improved the sensitivity of the test: Some patient samples that were not identified as cancerous via traditional methods were found to be so through deformability cytometry.
These results were verified six months later. Image courtesy of UCLA. Jianyu Rao , professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and the other co-principal investigator on the research, said the technique could potentially be used in a number of clinical settings to help manage cancer patients.
Third, it may provide a test to determine the drug sensitivity of cancer cells. Rao added that additional large-scale clinical studies are needed to further validate this technique for each of those applications. MEGAN : To start this off, generally speaking, can one person spread their cancer to another person by close contact or by any other means?
And if not, what is it about cancer cells that prevents this from happening? We know that cancer is caused when an individual cell gets a mistake in the machinery of that cell, in the DNA or other parts of the cell, that causes that cell to grow and divide, basically, out of control. For many cancers, we don't really know what the causative agents are. It's probably multiple things over many years, but it is clearly not a contagious disease or transmissible between people.
Cancers are incredibly common. We know that, in their lifetime, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will have a cancer, and there are many, many different types of cancer, and I think educating patients as much as we can about cancer demystifies it and makes it less scary. Really, we need to emphasize to our patients and their families that these patients need support and have folks rally around them, and there is absolutely nothing that will cause a cancer to be passed directly to another person, except in extremely rare circumstances, which we'll talk about.
MEGAN : Going off of that, what are some of the rare circumstances in which cancer can be passed from one person to another? Typically, the placenta is extremely good at detoxifying and destroying, preventing cells from traversing to the baby. There have been some very rare circumstances where a surgeon develops a melanoma with a needle stick or an injury during surgery where there are tumor cells.
But in general, the body's own immune system has a means of detecting and destroying these very small numbers of tumor cells when people are exposed, so we really don't think about that really ever. I've never seen that happen. There are some cancers that are driven by viruses. Patients who have HIV are more susceptible to a number of different types of cancer, but it's not that the cancers in any way are transmissible between patients and their contacts.
It just affects the immune system in such a way that predisposes patients to developing a cancer in rare circumstances. But even now, in the era of very good treatments for HIV, the cancer rates are generally down significantly.
There are some other viruses, like Hepatitis C, that are associated with particular cancers, but it's not that the cancer is transmissible; it's that the infectious disease is and can put someone at a slightly higher risk, meaning patients who have these underlying infections need to be followed closely by their physicians to make sure that they don't develop a cancer, but it's not that they pass them on to somebody else.
MEGAN : If cancer is not technically contagious, how do you explain the higher incidence rate of cancers in certain families? LACASCE : We know that there are some genes that you're born with that may predispose you to developing certain types of cancer down the line.
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