Changes in the mechanical properties of cells are among the earliest signs of development of a cancer. Until now, one of the major obstacles to the use of mechanics in cancer diagnosis has been the lack of a standardized measurement procedure that would guarantee reproducibility and reliability of results. Thanks to European scientific cooperation involving the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Cracow, this obstacle has now been removed.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Cancer cells have different mechanical properties to healthy cells. The photo shows Dr Kajangi Gnanachandran (IFJ PAN) assembling the AFM head used to measure the mechanical properties of cells. Credit: IFJ PAN When healthy cells transform into cancer cells, their mechanical properties change. This observation could be used to rapidly detect cancer in patients, but only if the mechanical measurements of the samples taken were truly reliable. An important step towards this goal is the proposal to standardize measurements, which has just been presented in Nanoscale. The published article is the result of several years of collaboration between scientists from the European universities of Amsterdam, Barcelona, Bremen, Lille, Marseille, Milan, Münster and the Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IFJ PAN) in Cracow. In 1999 it was shown at IFJ PAN that relative to healthy cells, cancer cells are characterized by an increased deformability of the cytoskeleton, making it easier for them to squeeze through the narrow vessels of the blood and/or lymphatic system and form metastases. Today, we know that breast, bowel, bladder or prostate cancer cells become softer already in the early stages of tumor transformation, while cells of others, such as leukemias, become stiffer. Although the change in the mechanical properties of the cells may also be caused by other factors, such as inflammation, its presence clearly makes further, more precise examinations in the patient inescapable. "If we had a reproducible measurement procedure at our disposal, with the help of appropriate laboratory equipment, we could rapidly detect abnormalities in the mechanical properties of cells, strongly indicating the possibility of cancerous…