Today, the process of finding new therapies for cancer treatment is slow because technologies to measure tumor regression take weeks to read and provide feedback.
This technological gap makes everything from drug screening to developing new treatments more difficult.
Now, the engineers of the Stanford University they created a small, self-contained device with a flexible sensor that can adhere to the skin to measure the varying size of an underlying tumor.
FAST, little genius who can make a difference
The small battery-powered device called FAST (acronym that stands for Fflexible Aautonomous Ssensor measuring Tumors) is the first tool that can measure tumor growth and share data wirelessly on a smartphone.
A completely new, fast, inexpensive, non-invasive and accurate way to test the effectiveness of anticancer drugs. How accurate? Much. FAST's measurements of a tumor are accurate to a hundredth of a millimeter (10 micrometers).
How the “tumor meter” works
FAST's sensor is made of a flexible, stretchable, skin-like polymer that includes a layer of gold circuitry. This sensor is connected to a small electronic backpack and measures the tension on the membrane: that is, how much it stretches or contracts.
When the sensor stretches the gold layer inside, it develops small cracks that change the electrical conductivity of the material.
The larger the cracks, the more the expansion of the material increases the electronic resistance in the sensor. When the material contracts, the cracks come back into contact and the conductivity improves.
Using the FAST backpack, potential therapies related to tumor size regression can be quickly and safely ruled out as ineffective or accelerated for further study.
A qualitative leap in anticancer therapies
The FAST sensor packages used for tumor measurement are also reusable, cost only about $60 to assemble, and can be up and running within minutes.
“FAST could accelerate the identification of effective cancer therapies,” he says Alex Abramson, first author of the study (that I link to you here). He's right: the ability of this sensor to continuously, autonomously and accurately record tumor volume regression suggests that this method could supplant current measurement techniques.
And it opens new avenues for high-throughput in vivo drug screening. It is an era marked by many steps forward in fight against cancer, but this good news has a really practical and immediate flavor!
