Wish-TV, Indianapolis

Cancer Detector - A special report

February 5, 2008

(College of Science) -- Imagine a world where drawing blood would be a thing of the past when you're being treated for something as devastating as cancer. It turns out, we're not that far away.

A researcher at Purdue University has found a way to detect cancer without ever drawing a drop of blood.

Pam Faerber's name is recognizable by association with Bee Windows, the business she owns with her husband.

What is not as well known is that Pam is an ovarian cancer survivor. She's healthy today because she regularly checks for any signs of new tumor growth.

"I have been cancer-free now for about 14 years. I am pretty religious that at least once a year I have a blood test and a thorough physical exam. If something is going on, that I don't feel right, I feel bloated, extremely tired, I'll go ahead and get that blood test pulled anytime," said Faerber.

There are thousands of cancer survivors like Pam who are in the same boat. They get a small amount of blood drawn to check for new cancer cells.

A new tumor cell detector being developed here in Indiana could change everything.

Dr. Philip Low is a biochemist at Purdue University and the man who has invented a new cancer detector. He and his assistant, Wei He, found a way to tag tumor cells and detect them with a laser.

"We inject into one vein of a patient a fluorescent dye that hones specifically to tumor cells. Because it labels the tumor cells, they become fluorescent and then we use this special microscope to look deep into the vasculature of a patient and count the circulating tumor cells," explains Low.

It's like watching a stream. The water flows by but there's an occasional colorful object that shows up. That colorful object, in Dr. Low's world, is a cancer cell.

"We can sit there and focus in on a blood vessel for even a half-hour if we wish, the laser is sufficiently non-damaging. It doesn't cause any harm to the patient. We can sit there and count any tumor cell when it flows by," said Low.

That ability would give doctors an extremely accurate account of cancer growth, right down to the cell.

"Even a small size tumor, the size of a gram, maybe the size of your small fingernail will be releasing a million tumor cells. And that may be difficult to see by a CT scan or an MRI but these circulating tumor cells are very easy to see," said Low.

Dr. Low is currently using a very expensive laser microscope to pick out the cancer cells and only in animals. But he has plans to make it easy and affordable.

"We would like to design a very inexpensive microscope, much less expensive than this one here, which costs a half a million dollars, one that would be very affordable for an average doctor," said Low.

Detecting cancer might be as simple as passing your hand into device the size of a shoe box. A laser microscope would simply search for tagged tumor cells. There would be no blood draws. It would simply look at all of the blood in your body in about a half hour.

It may be several years before Dr. Low's cancer detector is on the market.

It can't happen too soon for cancer survivors like Pam Faerber.

"What a relief that would be not only for me but everyone who's had cancer lives in fear that it's going to come back," said Faerber.

Dr. Low says this cancer detector can be used in prostate cancer patients and it could be used in people with brain, kidney and breast cancer as well.