Scientists develop pill to light up tumours to better distinguish between cancerous and benign growth

In a promising development, scientists have created a new pill that could improve breast cancer screening by lighting up tumours and help doctors better  distinguish between cancerous and benign growths. An issue with current breast cancer screening methods was that they often identified lumps but failed to conclusively indentify the cancerous ones.

"Screening can potentially catch the disease early in some patients, but false positives can lead to unnecessary, aggressive treatments in patients who don't need them," said Greg Thurber, assistant professor at University of Michigan, IANS reported.

Mammograms, which are the current standard for screening, are X-rays of breast tissue, give doctors information about a lump's location and size. However, they cannot distinguish between cancerous and benign growth. Further investigation requires biopsies, involving surgery. These are not 100 per cent conclusive though.

Doctors often resort to aggressive treatment when suspicious lumps are detected, ranging from surgery to chemotherapy, which could take months and cause serious side effects. With the pill which contains an imaging agent that selectively binds to cancer cells or blood vessels that are unique to tumours, many ''patients'' can be spared the pain and stress of the procedures.

According to Thurber, once attached to its target, the dye fluoresces under near infrared light, and although at this wavelength, fluorescent tumours could only be detected 1 to 2 centimetres deep, pairing the technique with ultrasound in the same instrument should be able to detect most cancers.