MRI: The new biopsy in detecting cancer cells

According to a recent study done at John Hopkins University, researchers propose a possible new method to finding out whether cells are cancerous without undergoing a biopsy. The new method they tested in their study was the use of a MRI technique in test tube grown cells and mice. The positive side of using a MRI is that unlike CT scans or mammograms it not only detects tumors, but it also can detect sugar molecules shed by cancer cells, therefore indicating which cells are cancerous.

Jeff Bulte, a professor of radiological sciences at John Hopkins, based his research on prior studies which found glucose to be detected by a MRI technique based on its water interactions without dyes. According to Xiaolei Song, the lead author in this study, this new MRI technique helps us see the whole tumor cell, whereas with the dyes we could only see part of it. The researchers propose more research needs to be conducted before testing to see if this new technique could work in humans as well. I think this could be a huge step in cancer research if the continuing studies show to be effective. I am looking forward to see where this new research takes us.