Cancer is still one of the creepiest words you may hear in a diagnosis, but because of decades of research today patients diagnosed with some form of cancer have a much better chance of survival than in previous decades. Treating cancer is a process of trial because any given medication does not work the same for all patients. Specialists’ understanding of what cancer is has matured in recent years, so some of the things you may have learned about treatments may no longer be true.
Is it technology cure for the cancer?
Cancer Cells Under The Microscope
[box type=”bio”] It seems that almost every day a new cancer discovery or treatment is published, but it’s difficult to understand this enthusiasm without a strong grasp of how the importance of cancer has changed in recent years.[/box] We know that cancer is caused by a genetic mutation, but in fact, not every cancer cell goes on to be a fatal, lethal cancer. Some cancers never become a problem, but some are aggressive and demand immediate treatment. Two major problems hinder current biomarker research – the localization of the correct signal and very low concentration of the biomarker in the blood.
New Devices: Cancer Tech
Modern technology is speeding up the process of finding right treatment by allowing doctors to try multiple cures at once. The CIVO device is capable of injecting multiple medications at once, permitting doctors to see which drugs are working, while another device is an implantable device designed to be implanted into the tumor.
- The CIVO device – This device includes up to six needles organized in an array and it can be used to inject multiple drugs close to the surface of a tumor. In the first phase, the needles are loaded with different medications and pressed into the malignant tumor. Few days later, scientists can remove a needle and examine the effect of each drug. With this device, doctors can compare different drugs and choose the most efficient approach.
The CV cylinder – developed by MIT researchers this small cylindrical device is made of multiple tubes. The device can carry up to 50 drugs as each tube can contain a different medication. A biopsy of the cell is taken after few days by removing the cylinder and a minor amount of the infected tissue. The cylinder is designed to be implanted directly into the tumor so that medications may be injected directly into cancerous tissue. The aim of this device is to let doctors see which drugs are effective or not.
The biomarker amplification system
Blood biomarkers have important potential applications in the management of various diseases. The newest technology exclusively developed at Massachusetts Institute of Technology may help to make biomarker discovery much easier. This device is placing nanoparticles in the tumor and cooperates with cancer proteins. Most biomarkers are present in extremely low concentrations, and it is extremely hard to notice them.[box type=”warning”] With that in mind, biomarker amplification system stimulates tumor to produce hundreds of biomarkers, easily detectable in the urine.[/box]