Cancer Cell Camera

Researchers from Rice University and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center have used an off-the-shelf digital camera to create an inexpensive device that is powerful enough to let doctors easily distinguish cancerous cells from healthy cells, simply by viewing the LCD monitor on the back of the camera.

"Consumer-grade cameras can serve as powerful platforms for diagnostic imaging," said Rice's Rebecca Richards-Kortum, the study's lead author. The team captured images of cells with a small bundle of fiber-optic cables attached to a consumer-grade camera. To image the tissues, the team applied a common fluorescent dye that caused cell nuclei in the samples to glow brightly when lighted with the tip of the fiber optic bundle. Three tissue types were tested: cancer cell cultures that were grown in a lab, tissue samples from newly resected tumors, and healthy tissue viewed in the mouths of patients.

Richards-Kortum said software could be written to allow medical professionals who are not pathologists to use the device to distinguish healthy from nonhealthy cells.

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