Detecting Cancer Cells with a Device Using Sound Waves

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY, PA, USA. A device has been developed that utilizes sound waves in detecting and separating cancer cells from white blood cells. This device will provide a good alternative in providing early detection of cancer cells.

President Subra Suresh of Carnegie Mellon University led the group of researchers in developing the method called “acoustic tweezers”. It caters to a more detailed analysis of cancer cells that can be used by researchers in studying and diagnosing cancer.

A tilted-angle standing surface acoustic wave is being utilized in acoustic tweezers. It is actually a pair of transducers that emit sound waves situated in between a luge of blood cells or pathway. The blood cells are deflected as the sound waves are being sent out to the cellular luge.

The major concern for this method is that the deflection is greatly altered by the differences in size, compressibility, density and shape of the blood cells in the pathway or cellular luge. The researchers also discovered that cancer cells are deflected differently than the white blood cells. The end of the cellular luge is split into two and this is where the white blood cells and cancer cells are being separated.

The acoustic tweezers is a method that has immensely improved the process of detecting cancer cells. It is faster and 20 times more efficient in separating cancer cells from white blood cells. This improvement and development will certainly provide efficiency and accuracy in the early detection of cancer cells. It is minimally invasive and can definitely provide new venues for cancer prognosis, diagnosis, metastasis research and therapy monitoring.

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