SHAFAQNA – An Iranian scientist in Australia has found a new method for detecting cancer and curing it even at early stages.
Dr Majid Warkiani and his team at NSW University have created a biochip that filters a cancer patient’s blood to identify and then remove cancer cells.
The system known as “dialysis for cancer” is cheaper and less painful than current methods and it can dramatically reduce the chance of cancer recurrence.
“We are simply getting the blood from the patient, it’s a mixture of normal blood cells and cancer cells,” Australia’s ABC news quoted Dr Warkiani as saying.
“We put it inside one of our biochips and the cells go under migration, and they get affected by hydrodynamic forces.”
“Under those forces that we are applying to the cells inside the chip, the bigger cells go up to the cancer cell outlet, and the smaller cells get pushed down and essentially they get fractionated, they get separated.”
Dr Majid Warkiani
The chip can be used to diagnose the cancer, and also to dramatically reduce the costs associated with treatment.
Patients usually need regular scans to check to see that their tumors are shrinking, which cost around $700 per scan.
But the biochip can be used instead to monitor the level of cancer cells in the blood, and Dr Warkiani estimates these tests will cost between $50-$100.