New Device Uses Gold Nanoparticles to Test for Lung Cancer

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111117112829.htm

The article, “New Device Uses Gold Nanoparticles to Test for Lung Cancer,” on ScienceDaily.com was very well written, and very interesting. Researchers at the University of Colorado Cancer Center are making great strides toward diagnosing lung cancer in patients much quicker than most hospitals can now. They are currently creating a new device along with Nobel-Prize-winning Technion University in Haifa, Israel that uses gold nanoparticles to trap and define the molecules in exhaled breath in order to see if cancerous cells are present within the lung. The article stated, “By comparing these molecular signatures to control groups, the device can tell not only if a lung is cancerous, but if the cancer is small-cell or non-small-cell, and adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.” Here, it is shown that this device will not only be able to distinguish whether a person has lung cancer, but also it will be able to distinguish what type of cancer someone has. In order to work, a patient only needs to breath into a type of bag that will use gold nanoparticles to identify molecules that are native to cancerous cells. Previously, doctors needed to administer expensive and often incorrect CT scans to test for lung cancer. The article stated, “For example, the National Lung Screening Trial recently reported that one of the major challenges in its more than 53,000-person study of low-dose chest CT scans to detect lung cancer was the trial's nearly 95 percent rate of false positives -- CT scans found nodules that turned out not to be cancerous.” If this device is to be patented, it could help many doctors around the world in the fight against cancer.

This new technology has an extremely important place in the world today. Not only would it help hospitals diagnose lung cancer, it would also help countless patients in learning that they had cancer much sooner than previously possible. This is because with the CT scans that are used today, they are not administered very frequently because they are quite costly. If this technology is made available for most doctors, it would allow them to test for cancer with the use of one breath.

I thought that this article was quite well written. The author explained what this new technology was and how it could influence future medicine. Throughout the article I was astonished at the thought of such a groundbreaking new technology, and I hope that this can be produced on a large scale for those who could use it as soon as possible. One thing that the author could have done better would be to go into greater depth on how exactly the gold nanoparticles are able to distinguish molecules that are native to cancerous cells using this device. Overall though, I look forward to hearing more about this technology in the future.

"New Device Uses Gold Nanoparticles to Test for Lung Cancer." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. Web.