创新背景

从肿瘤上脱落并在血流中自由游动的细胞，也称为循环肿瘤细胞，可以作为癌症生物标志物，表明疾病的存在。

创新过程

斯坦福大学医学院研究人员的一项研究表明，一种用于捕捉稀少且难以捕获的肿瘤细胞的磁线可能被证明是一种快速有效的早期癌症检测策略。

这根穿过静脉的金属丝吸引特殊的磁性纳米颗粒，这些纳米颗粒被设计成粘附在肿瘤细胞上，如果你体内某处有肿瘤，这些肿瘤细胞可能会在血流中游荡。由于这些肿瘤细胞基本上是磁化的，导线可以用同样的力将细胞从自由流动的血液中吸引出来。

这项技术目前只在猪身上使用，比目前基于血液的癌症检测方法吸引了10-80倍的肿瘤细胞，使其成为早期发现疾病的有效工具。这项技术甚至可以帮助医生评估患者对特定癌症治疗的反应：如果治疗有效，血液中的肿瘤细胞水平应该随着细胞死亡和脱离肿瘤而上升，然后随着肿瘤缩小而下降。

这种导线可以用于血液中存在感兴趣的细胞或分子的任何其他疾病。例如，假设患者正在检查细菌感染、循环肿瘤DNA或致炎症的罕见细胞-在任何这些情况下，导线和纳米颗粒都有助于丰富信号，从而检测疾病或感染。

从肿瘤上脱落并在血流中自由游动的细胞，也称为循环肿瘤细胞，可以作为癌症生物标志物，表明疾病的存在。电线的长度约为小指的长度，厚度约为回形针的厚度，要想让它发挥作用，循环中的肿瘤细胞必须用纳米颗粒进行有效磁化。这些纳米颗粒含有一种抗体，可以附着在循环的肿瘤细胞上。一旦漂浮的肿瘤细胞和纳米颗粒连接在一起，细胞就会将微小的磁体挂在周围，当细胞-磁体复合体流过导线时，它会受到磁力的驱使，从血流中的常规路径转向，并粘在导线上。然后，从静脉中取出导线，并剥离细胞进行分析。

甘比尔和他的团队还没有在人身上试用这种电线，因为他们还需要向食品和药物管理局申请批准，但他们已经成功地在猪身上进行了测试，将该设备放置在猪耳朵附近的静脉中。这条静脉与人类手臂上的静脉非常相似。与5毫升的血样相比，磁线提取的癌细胞是普通血样的10-80倍；与一种不同的、市售的基于导线的检测方法相比，该导线可以多检测500到5000个肿瘤细胞。

这项技术还可以用来收集难以活检的肿瘤的基因信息，或者提供癌症治疗效果的信息。

创新价值

这项技术比目前基于血液的癌症检测方法吸引了10-80倍的肿瘤细胞，使其成为早期发现疾病的有效工具。这项技术甚至可以帮助医生评估患者对特定癌症治疗的反应：如果治疗有效，血液中的肿瘤细胞水平应该随着细胞死亡和脱离肿瘤而上升，然后随着肿瘤缩小而下降。

创新关键点

这根穿过静脉的金属丝吸引特殊的磁性纳米颗粒，这些纳米颗粒被设计成粘附在肿瘤细胞上，如果你体内某处有肿瘤，这些肿瘤细胞可能会在血流中游荡。由于这些肿瘤细胞基本上是磁化的，导线可以用同样的力将细胞从自由流动的血液中吸引出来。

Detection of human cancer using magnetized wires

A study by researchers from Stanford University School of Medicine showed that a magnetic line used to capture rare and difficult to capture tumor cells may prove to be a fast and effective strategy for early cancer detection.
This metal wire passing through the vein attracts special magnetic nanoparticles, which are designed to adhere to tumor cells. If there is a tumor somewhere in your body, these tumor cells may wander in the blood flow. Since these tumor cells are basically magnetized, the wires can use the same force to attract the cells out of the free flowing blood.
This technology is currently only used in pigs. It attracts 10-80 times more tumor cells than the current blood based cancer detection method, making it an effective tool for early detection of diseases. This technology can even help doctors assess the patient's response to specific cancer treatments: if the treatment is effective, the level of tumor cells in the blood should rise with cell death and detachment from the tumor, and then decrease with tumor shrinkage.
Such leads can be used for any other disease in which cells or molecules of interest are present in the blood. For example, suppose a patient is examining for bacterial infections, circulating tumor DNA, or rare cells that cause inflammation - in any of these cases, wires and nanoparticles help enrich the signal to detect disease or infection.
Cells that shed from tumors and freely swim in the blood stream, also known as circulating tumor cells, can be used as cancer biomarkers to indicate the presence of disease. The length of the wire is about the length of the little finger and the thickness is about the thickness of the paper clip. To make it work, the circulating tumor cells must be effectively magnetized with nanoparticles. These nanoparticles contain an antibody that can attach to circulating tumor cells. Once the floating tumor cells and nanoparticles are connected together, the cells will hang the tiny magnets around. When the cell magnet complex flows through the wire, it will be driven by the magnetic force to turn from the normal path in the blood flow and stick to the wire. Then, the lead was removed from the vein and the cells were stripped for analysis.
Gambier and his team have not tried this wire on humans because they still need to apply to the food and Drug Administration for approval, but they have successfully tested it on pigs, placing the device in a vein near the pig's ear. This vein is very similar to the vein on the human arm. Compared with 5 ml blood sample, the cancer cells extracted by magnetic line were 10-80 times as much as that of normal blood sample; Compared with a different, commercially available wire based detection method, the wire can detect 500 to 5000 more tumor cells.
This technology can also be used to collect genetic information of tumors that are difficult to biopsy, or to provide information on the effect of cancer treatment.