SCIENTISTS FUNDED by the St Andrews-based Association for International Cancer Research have been working on a process which could “revolutionalise” cancer diagnosis and treatment.

The work is being carried out in the field of nanotechnology, perhaps more easily identified for many people because of the cinematic Fantastic Voyage taken through the human body three decades ago by Racquel Welch and a microscopic submarine.

Now the fantasy is increasingly becoming reality, and the latest work has seen the development of tiny fluorescent crystals, barely visible to the human eye, which could enable long-term tracking of cancer cells.

These are already being used to help the study of tissue samples from patients and to detect and monitor in real time specific molecules inside the cells.

The progress has been made possible because of a series of scientific triumphs not previously achieved, and the interdisciplinary collaboration has involved researchers from France, Russia and Britain.

They specialise in nanotechnology, and their particles can be detected by very strong fluorescence when any light from ultraviolet to red is shone on them.

The team involves Dr Igor Bronstein, of the University of York (currently working at the Institute for Animal Health in Compton, Berkshire) together with professor Igor Nabiev, from Reims, France, and professor Vladimir Oleinikov, from the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow.

After overcoming a number of technical hurdles they have managed to attach nanocrystals to antibodies, and use them to identify a molecule known to make cancer cells resistant to chemotherapy.

Dr Bronstein said the nanocrystals were so bright that a single molecule on the cell surface could be detected.

The challenge, he said, had been to optimise the nanocrystals for their direct application to diagnosis by using surgical biopsies.

“The nanocrystals could be used with any type of antibody to analyse any type of molecule in cancer cells and tissues more effectively and more accurately than had been possible before.”

AICR’s chief executive Derek Napier said at the weekend that nanotechnology could change the approach to cancer research.

“To understand the rise and progression of cancer we need a long-term tracking of cells and molecules. The available existing fluorescent dyes suffer from photodegradation and can’t do it.

“Nanotechnology is removing these obstacles and, moreover, these crystals are extremely stable and fluoresce for many days.

“I believe this important development has opened up a new path towards more effective methods to diagnose and treat cancer in the future.”

Over 30 years ago 20th Century Fox took the movie-going public on a Fantastic Voyage where, through miraculous technologies, scientists shrank a 30-foot-long metal ship to the size of a pinhead.

Audiences were mesmerised as the miniature ship with its hero crew sailed through the bloodstream, encountering gigantic white blood cells.

Nanotechnology is a “catch all” description of activities at the level of atoms and molecules that have applications in the real world.

To put the type of dimensions involved into perspective, a nanometer is a billionth of a metre—or about 1/80,000 of the diameter of a human hair.