Metastases to better detect and treat

In the case of a cancer disease is sometimes not only affected Organ. The tumor cells can spread and spread in the body. Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for toxicology and Experimental medicine (ITEM) now have refined a method of scattered tumor cells in lymph nodes detected can be. In this way, they were significantly more likely to find it and can at the same time examine what treatment is best for these cells.

Stray tumor cells are usually detected by the pathologist in ultra-thin layers of lymph nodes. The danger is that cancer cells are not recognized, because it is not possible to examine all the layers but. Scientists from the ITEM have therefore developed a different method for tracking three times more common metastases than with the conventional method: you are separating the cells gently with a tissue chopper, and the use of a dye, the scattered tumor anfärbt cells. Then, two million cells from the lymph nodes to be analysed automatically, with a program that is based on artificial intelligence, identified the stained cancer cells.

Dr. Bernhard Polzer, Deputy head of the research area of Personalised tumour therapy, said: "With our method, we have demonstrated in half of the examined lymph nodes, tumor cells. With the classic method, the pathologists were able to find only 15 to 20 percent of the samples of cancer cells."

Metastases target deal

But the researchers are not satisfied yet, Because tumor cells on their way into other tissues, are often treated differently than that of the original tumor. We know about 450 typical mutations, against which there are already drugs. Polzer explains: "We want to isolate from the lymph nodes or bone marrow, the scattered tumor cells, and the 450 mutations to investigate. Then we could stop with the appropriate drug, the formation of metastases."

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