Space technology could be used to help detect cancer of the bone marrow, a European conference heard yesterday.
NASA is backing the development of the technology aimed at measuring the effect of zero gravity of astronaut bones.
Developers say the new technique can be used to show what is happening in the bone in real time.
The idea has been adapted from geochemistry, which has "extremely accurate" techniques for measuring the ratios of calcium isotopes. One application is the study of sea shell deposits in sedimentary rocks.
Now a technique that measures the ratios of the calcium isotopes 42Ca and 44Ca has been applied to bones, the Goldschmidt conference of the European Association of Geochemistry in Prague, Czech Republic, has heard.
The technique has been tested on shuttle astronauts before, during and after flight – and has high sensitivity, the conference heard.
It was then tested on 71 patients with multiple myeloma or at risk of developing the disease.
Researcher Ariel Anbar, of Arizona State University, USA, said: "We were able to confirm that calcium isotopes of the shuttle shifted as expected, meaning that they we could see in more or less real time the ongoing bone loss."
He added: "What we saw with cancer patients was interesting. Those patients who tended to lose the lighter 42Ca isotope seemed to be the ones where the cancer was the most active.
"This means that the tests could theoretically feed into decisions on whether or not to treat a patient, for example if a cancer was dormant or growing very slowly, and to assess the effectiveness of treatments."
Professor Scott Parzynski, a doctor who is a former astronaut and now a professor at Arizona State University, said: "Physicians treating osteoporosis and other calcium disorders of bone, including multiple myeloma, have very few tools at their disposal to quickly determine whether the treatments they’re providing are actually making a difference.
"By using calcium isotope ratios, healthcare providers may be able to optimise therapies for these debilitating illnesses in the future."
Leave a Reply