3 Ways To Detect Cancers At An Early Stage
One of the biggest challenges we currently face is the rapidly increasing number of cancer cases. In 2020, there were approximately 10 million deaths worldwide — meaning about 1 in 6 deaths is due to cancer alone.
Cancer is an incredibly complex disease. Although millions of medical publications exist, only limited advances have happened in its diagnosis and treatment.
Here is one thing we know about cancers…
EARLY DIAGNOSIS WILL SAVE LIVES
This is why there is a lot of focus on early detection.
Here are a few popular WAYS that doctors and scientists use to catch them early…
a) Biomarkers research
Cancer-affected cells possess multiple DNA mutations. These mutations can result in RNA and protein changes. As a result, thousands of molecules are increased or decreased in different body fluids.
Some of these molecules have achieved a biomarker status —which means their levels closely resemble the presence of cancer.
Researchers are actively trying to discover biomarkers representative of different cancers. In some situations, monitoring for a single biomarker is not enough, and scientists use a biomarker panel (consisting of multiple biomarkers). Today, some biomarkers can predict recurrence and response to treatment.
Taking blood samples is also complicated because many fear needle pain. Researchers are now relying on easily acquirable biofluids — like saliva, urine, and sweat.
Biomarker-based research is particularly relevant to deep-seated cancers (like breast, prostate, liver, colon, and brain) that are not amenable to clinical examination.
With developments in nanotechnology, capturing even subtle differences in biomarker levels has become more convenient.
Today, many commercially available biomarker kits are available — that show potential for screening for multiple cancers.
b) Cytology inquiry
Generally, in cancers, the cells exhibit changes such as ‘larger nuclear size’ and ‘elevated nuclear-cytoplasmic ratio’. These findings indicate that the cell is in the active phase. It is, therefore, possible to detect cancer— by identifying these specific changes under microscopy.
This field is popularly referred— as cytology. Cells for cytology are obtained by gently scraping on the affected tissues.
The beauty of this technique is that it is simple and economical.
The cancers that could be mainly detected using cytology are those of the cervix.
Cytology is so good that it is currently an accepted screening method for cervical cancer detection.
This technique can also be employed for other cancers— like those in the mouth. However, establishing a fool-proof method for these cancers might take a few more years.
Researchers have started comparing the healthy cytology data with cancer data — using AI-based methods. AI could be valuable because hundreds of cell images can be collected from a single volunteer.
c) Seeing under—specialised light
Many light-based technologies have emerged in recent times. Different light sources are used— visible light (VIBGYOR) to ultraviolet and infrared sources.
These methods could be important for identifying changes in superficial tissue sites like the mouth and skin. They can work well for gastrointestinal imaging if fiber optics are integrated into these systems.
In particular, techniques like optical coherence tomography, routinely used for retinal screening, are being applied to screen superficial cancers — like those on skin and mucosa. Other imaging systems, like photoacoustic tomography, are also being explored for imaging deeper tissues.
However, these optical technologies can be expensive, and reducing costs is critical.
There are also many simple optical platforms available—one noteworthy system is auto-fluorescence-based imaging.
This imaging provides screening of large areas and is very relevant to mouth cancers. Healthy oral tissues emit a green emission when blue light is shed on them. In a cancer scenario, however, this natural reflectance ability of oral mucosa is lost—and there is a — loss of fluorescence. This principle is being for using in the VelScope.
It is important to realise — some tools are in the clinical stage, and some are still in the pre-clinical stages of research.
Recognizing diseases early on through these strategies may lead to timely patient referral and management.
Final message
A strong collaboration between doctors and technologists is vital to innovate cost-effective methods to catch cancer.
