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Tracy Hampton, PhD

JAMA. 2008;299(3):276.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

A patient's cancer cells are nearly 4 times softer than similar but normal neighboring cells, according to recent research. The findings suggest that a "mechanical signature" might be a new biomarker of malignancy and could aid in the diagnosis, and even treatment, of cancer (Cross SE et al. Nature Nanotechnology. 10.1038/nnano.2007.388 [published online December 2, 2007]).

"My hope is that eventually it could be used in a clinical setting," said principal investigator James Gimzewski, PhD, a professor in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry at the University of California at Los Angeles.

SOFT CELLS

Previous studies have shown that cultured cancer cells are more pliable than their normal counterparts. But this is the first measurement of the stiffness of tumor cells taken directly from patients. "The remarkable thing is that what they show from fluid samples taken from cancer patients is roughly the same as was found in . . . [Full Text of this Article]