KTKA

Is that tumor cancerous? And, how fast might it spread?

Pathologists have to answer those tricky questions every day.

Now, research published today puts a tool normally found in crime labs into the hands of doctors, so they can do a better job of catching cancer.

A doctor viewing a tumor biopsy under a microscope has to judge by cells' visible features whether they're cancerous and if so, how aggressive.

"If you wanted to look at the edge of a tumor, one of the things that you want to know is that edge rapidly growing, is it an aggressive edge, or is it somewhat dormant or is the tumor not going to grow," said Vanderbilt University biochemist Richard Caprioli.

Caprioli is helping them to also see the molecules involved in cancer and its spread.

Molecular tumor image reveals areas in red for aggressive cells, blue for less aggressive cells and green for normal cells.

Caprioli and his team at Vanderbilt University are developing what they call molecular imaging. It uses an instrument called a mass spectrometer, long used by chemists in places like crime labs. It detects the types and amounts of the various molecules in a sample.

However, instead of destroying samples by pulverizing and dissolving them, Caprioli's method uses lasers to analyze intact tissues. As he wrote in the "Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences," that lets them see not only the levels of telltale molecules but their location, like those important edges.

"And now we're able to say 'yes, that is a very aggressive molecular pattern,' or not," he said.

Caprioli says the technology is already being adopted by some hospitals to improve diagnosis and treatment.

Cancer is just one example of the technique's usefulness. It can be used to analyze any type of tissue such as Alzheimer's Disease plaques. For more, including how they could diagnose disease in a spleen sample from over 100 years ago, visit Sciencentral.com.