This Magnetic Wire Could One Day Pull Cancer Cells from Your Blood

From Live Science.com (July 17):

Scientists think that magnets could be utilized in the body to detect tumor cells that other diagnostic techniques might miss.

Researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine created a magnetic wire that could, in theory, be inserted into a person's vein, where it could snatch up tumor cells that had been magnetized by special nanoparticles.

The device hasn't yet been tested in people, but the researchers found that, in pigs, the magnetic wire detected 10 to 80 times more floating tumor cells in the blood than a typical blood draw could. The results were published July 16 in the journal Nature Biomedical Engineering.

The tumor cells that the magnetic wire picks up are known as circulating tumor cells. These are cells that split off from tumors and float through the bloodstream. By drawing blood and looking for tumor cells, doctors may be able to screen for cancer. (This type of cancer screening is called a liquid biopsy.) [read more]

That’s good news. Hope it works in people too.