Unusual capsule can help spot lung cancer
Swallowing a capsule sponge on a string could help doctors detect a condition called Barretts esophagus -- and the cancer that can result from it -- much more accurately than current methods, according to a new study in Nature Genetics.
People with chronic (long term) acid reflux sometimes get Barretts, in which the normal tissue lining the esophagus (the tube carrying food from the mouth to the stomach) changes to tissue that resembles the lining of the intestine. This puts people at risk of getting cancer of the esophagus, or esophageal adenocarcinoma.
When doctors accurately spot Barretts, they can closely watch their patients for signs of cancer.
Most cases of Barretts go undetected, though. And by the time people are diagnosed with cancer of the esophagus, its often too late to save them. Most people (about 80%) with this type of cancer die within 5 years of being diagnosed.
But if Barretts esophagus is spotted early, it can often be effectively treated.
The device is called a Cytosponge, and it looks like an oversized vitamin pill attached to a piece of string. Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald and colleagues at the University of Cambridge developed it.
A patient swallows the capsule while a health care professional holds on to the piece of string. After about 5 minutes, when the capsule has been dissolved by stomach acids, it releases a sponge.
The health care professional then slowly pulls the sponge up the patients esophagus and out of their mouth. As the sponge passes through, it scrapes cells off the lining of the esophagus. These cells can then be sent to a lab for analysis.
But instead of a pathologist looking at the cells under a microscope, the researchers at the University of Cambridge suggest that DNA analysis of the cells can accurately pinpoint cancerous and precancerous cells. Mutations in the DNA form a pattern that acts as a kind of fingerprint to help identify the disease.
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