GREGG BRADEN GREGG BRADEN - Earthstar

Earth Star Up FrontMIKES Pick Upthe Soundsof CANCERCancer patients could havetheir disease diagnosed withmicrophones after scientistsdiscovered that cells “scream” whenexposed to infrared light.Researchers at ManchesterUniversity in the UK have found thathuman cell samples produce a distinctivenoise when heated with aninfrared lamp.Doctors hope to use the noise producedby cancer cells to developaccurate diagnostic techniques withoutthe need for painful surgery toobtain tissue samples.Prostate cancer, for example, canbe notoriously difficult to detect,even with surgical biopsies, whileblood tests can give ambiguousresults.Dr Peter Gardner, the analyticalchemist who led the research, saidthat with a technique called photoacoustics,cells could be taken fromurine samples instead and testedusing a microphone.But he warned that it could be upto ten years before such a testbecomes readily available.He said the sound made by cancercells was subtly different fromthat made by healthy cells, “like atuba in an orchestra being horriblyout of tune”.More than thirty-five thousandcases of prostate cancer are diagnosedin Britain every year. It causesten thousand deaths annually, makingit the second most common cause ofcancer death after lung cancer.—UK Daily Telegraphwww.earthstarmag.comFEBRUARY / MARCH 2008 EARTH STAR 11