Early detection, prognosis and customized therapy for breast cancer using quartz crystal nanobalance technology

Date: 11/09/2007
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm
Location: 333 CSC
Speaker: Dr. Susan Braunhut, Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, UMass Lowell

In the U.S more than 200,000 people will be diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007. The 5-year survival rate for localized breast cancer has improved from 80% in 1958 to 98% in 2007, however, the survival rate for women with metastatic disease is still very low, < 26%. Early detection of breast lesions through mammogram screening has improved our cure rate but the breast lesions themselves are more difficult to assess for metastatic potential using convention histology techniques. Another problem with treatment management is the proliferation of chemotherapeutics available after diagnosis, and no clear way to predict efficacy of different drugs to optimize treatment response for individual patients. We have developed the Quartz Crystal Nanobalance (QCN) as a new rapid cancer cell biosensor. The diagnostic QCN biosensor is designed to use small numbers of living human mammary epithelial cells (1,000-50,000) easily attainable from a typical surgical biopsy. Within 4 hrs, our studies indicate QCN analysis can distinguish malignant tumor cells from normal mammary epithelial cells in a sample. Once a diagnosis is determined, the tumor sample can be immediately tested for tumor cell responses to a diverse panel of potential chemotherapeutics. The QCN would therefore permit early detection and a non-anatomical prognostic classification of the tumor and simultaneously would provide the managing oncologist with a means to customize therapy. This new technique could be used for treatment guidance for newly diagnosed patients, patients with recurrence, or patients that have developed resistance to their current therapy.