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Research using synchrotron radiation
Research team led by Prof. James (Australia) proposed in "Nature" (March 4) a new method to screen for breast cancer by measuring synchrotron radiation (SR) X-ray small angle scattering of hair as sample.
They measured small angle X-ray scattering of human hair at beamline 15A in the Photon Factory, Institute of Materials Structure Sciences, and found that the sample taken from breast cancer patients showed characteristic scattering pattern different from those of healthy women. To confirm the correlation between X-ray scattering pattern and breast cancer, they performed a double-blind study on a larger sample from the same source. All the samples (23 out of 23) taken from breast-cancer patients exhibited the characteristic change in their X-ray scattering patterns. Contrary, 24 out of 28 healthy people showed normal. Interestingly, the samples from those not yet diagnosed with breast cancer but suspected of being at risk, because of the presence of pathological mutation at certain genetic site, showed the full changed pattern (3 out of 5) and a partial change (remainder).
They propose from these observation that hair analysis using SR may be used as a simple, non-invasive screening method for breast cancer.
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| Figure legend: X-ray scattering patterns. Left, hair from a healthy female; right, from a breast cancer patient. Arrows show parts of pattern from healthy samples. In the changed pattern, a diffuse ring resulting from random orientation superimposes on this region. |
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