CANCER DETECTION USING HAIR Hair from women with breast cancer can be distinguished from hair obtained from women without the disease, researchers in Australia report. When hair is exposed to X-rays, the radiation is diffracted in a distinctive pattern by the alpha-keratin that forms hair, the researchers explain in the International Journal of Cancer.
Dr. Gary L. Corino ansd Dr. Peter W. French based at Fermiscan Ltd in Sydney, used the technique to look samples of hair from 13 patients diagnosed with breast cancer and 20 healthy subjects.
Hair from the breast cancer patients produced the same
features “with the only difference being the superimposition of a new features.” This was a distinctive low-intensity ring. This ring sign was fairly accurate in identifying breast cancer. It missed one of the breast cancer patients, and showed up as a false-positive in three of the healthy subject.
Further testing is needed to establish the accuracy of this methodology as a
diagnostic test for breast cancer, they conclude.