Rapid cancer test can diagnosis patients with just a splash of urine

 

A simple urine sample may be all you need to diagnosis cancer soon. Researchers in South Korea are developing a new rapid test that looks at the metabolites in urine which reveal the presence of certain cancers in the body. Their success is paving the way for a simple strip-type sensor that alerts patients long before life-threatening symptoms emerge in late-stage cancers.

Right now, the team says this test can detect prostate cancer and pancreatic cancer with near-perfect accuracy. The test works by irradiating light after placing a small volume (10uL) of urine droplets on the testing surface.

Study authors focused on the differences in metabolomic components present in the urine of cancer patients and healthy people. When cancer cells start to multiply in a person’s body, they secrete different metabolites into urine because the disease is altering the patient’s metabolism.

Researchers developed a surface-enhanced Raman scattering sensor which amplifies the signs of these metabolites by more than one billion times. They did this by forming a coral-shaped plasmonic nanomaterial on porous paper. When scientists put a patient’s urine into the sensor and irradiate it with light, the cancer metabolite signals literally “light up” on the sensor surface. Using artificial intelligence to analyze their results, the team was able to distinguish up to 99 percent of prostate and pancreatic cancer patients from healthy samples.