An individualised cancer screening device

Marco Lazzarino, a senior scientist at the Italian National Research Council, is working on a different kind of detector—one that does not spot x-rays or photons, but level of various proteins in the bloodstream.

“Proteins,” Lazzarino analogizes, “are sort of like fingerprints; everyone has the same types, but each person has different baseline concentrations.”

Each of us has different quantities of the same proteins. One person might have a high concentration of protein X  and a low concentration of protein Y, while another person might have a low concentration of protein X and a high concentration of protein Y. Though the two have different concentrations of the same proteins, they could still both be normal and healthy.

In theory, doctors could read the status of our health from the concentration of proteins, Lazzarino says. But there is a catch. Since each of us has that unique combination of proteins when healthy, no ‘one size fits all’ protein exists to detect, for instance, cancer. Scientists need to repeatedly measure the concentration of hundreds of different proteins in an individual’s blood over a long period of time to determine what a healthy baseline looks like, and spot a cancer-indicating variance for an individual.

Doctors cannot do this with current technology. To test for the level of a single protein, doctors need to draw about five millilitres of blood and wait an hour for test results. To detect cancer, doctors would need to test for hundreds of different proteins, probably about once a month. Doctors do not have the time to do this and cannot draw that much blood without making us sick.

Lazzarino believes he has a solution. His team “wants to develop a machine that you can put your finger on, and in an hour, know if you are healthy.” People, especially those at risk of developing cancer, could store such a machine in their home and use it daily. Lazzarino’s machine would determine what levels are healthy for an individual and what are not. Armed with this information, Lazzarino believes his invention could detect cancer in its earliest stages, ultimately saving lives.

“We need something to facilitate communication between scientists and companies, otherwise companies will see these outlandish ideas scientists come up with and say, ‘go away!,’” Lazzarino thinks aloud. “Companies are concerned with profit, he continues, “so they don’t always see what’s around the corner. Scientists are always looking for what’s around the next corner.” He concludes that industry and scientists “need to exchange opinions and find a middle ground.”

Hopefully, with the help of industry, Lazzarino’s insights will one day be channeled into a machine that saves lives.