Atomic Force Microscopy Helps to Develop Methods for Physical Detection of Cancerous Cells

Humans are still far from defeating cancer. Early detection of cancer will decrease fatality from this disease. Traditional methods of identification of cancerous cells are mainly based on regular techniques used in biology, such as visual identification of maligant changes, cell growth analysis, specific ligand-receptor labeling, or genetic tests. After many years of research, these methods are still either insufficiently accurate or require a lengthy complicated analysis. It has been recently shown that the atomic force microscopy (AFM) method can be useful in the search for alternative methods for a reliable detection of cancer cells. Here we describe the atomic force microscopy (AFM) study of malignant and normal cells cultured from human cervix. Studying adhesion of AFM probes to both of these types of cells, we found that the adhesion can be statistically different. This finding allows us to propose two novel methods for detection cancer cells by using fluorescent silica beads. The methods show high sensitivity to detect cancer in-vitro. Nevertheless, more statistical data will be needed to determine the actual accuracy of the methods.