Scientists are working on a way to detect cancer with sound waves Premium

New ultrasound technique detects cancer biomarkers in blood, potentially replacing biopsies, with promising results for early detection.

Scientists have developed a new technique to detect cancers. The method uses ultrasound to turn a small part of our body’s tissue into droplets that are released into the blood. These bubbles contain molecules like RNA, DNA, and proteins that allow the scientists to identify particular types of cancer.

Roger Zemp, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at the University of Alberta, Canada, led a recent study describing such a technique. He presented his team’s findings at the joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the Canadian Acoustical Association at Shaw Centre in Canada on May 13.

A summary of the findings was also published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America earlier this year.

Doctors have been using ultrasound to take pictures of internal organs. The technology converts the sound waves reflected by surfaces inside the body to an image, just the way bats use ultrasound to sense their surroundings.

This said, the gold standard to detect many cancers is a biopsy. Doctors extract a small piece of tissue or cells using a large needle from the part of the body where cancer is suspected to be present. In vitro tests can confirm if the tissue/cells are cancerous and, if so, what kind of cancer it is.

Now, Zemp and his colleagues at the university are figuring out a way to use ultrasound to perhaps someday replace biopsies, which are cumbersome, painful, and potentially injurious. They have found that high-energy ultrasound (at frequencies greater than those used in ultrasound scans) can break off a small piece of cancerous tissue into droplets and release their contents into the bloodstream. The team could then test the blood for biomarkers — certain biomolecules like DNA, RNA or proteins — specific to cancer.

“Ultrasound can enhance the levels of these genetic and vesicle biomarkers in blood samples by over a 100-times,” Zemp said in a press release. This method could allow clinicians to use blood samples to detect specific cancer types and even the mutations they contain, which is currently undetectable in blood.