Will there be a very special device that can destroy cancer completely?
Using precision observation technology used for telescopes, Japanese scientists hope to create a device that can detect cancer stem cells.
A team of Japanese researchers is hoping to find the stem cells of malignant tumors in humans using extremely precise observational sensor technology, which has been used in the telescope attached to the country's Hitomi satellite, the Japan Times reported.
The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and the Kavli Institute for Mathematics and Space Physics at the University of Tokyo (IMPU) will create a prototype device by 2020, then test it on mice. The Asahi newspaper said the device, a microscope, could detect cancer stem cells 50 times better than current devices.
Researchers estimate that cancer stem cells can still survive after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy, leading to continued growth of malignant cells, causing cancer to recur and metastasize to other organs. Therefore, to completely eliminate cancer, it is necessary to know exactly where stem cells exist in the human body and the number of cells.
Last year, IMPU and JAXA established a joint research center for space and medicine. From April 2018, the institute will promote research by inviting researchers from Keiko University School of Medicine and the University of Tokyo's Faculty of Pharmacy.
Accordingly, the research team will develop a radioactive isotope that penetrates cancer stem cells and a device to monitor these stem cells using sensor technology applied on the Hitomi satellite.
The device will allow patients with brain cancers that are difficult to detect using CT scans to be monitored in three dimensions with an accuracy of 0.1mm or less.
Brain cancer can recur when CT scans fail to detect cancer stem cells, said Hideyuki Saya, deputy director of Keiko University Hospital and a member of the research team. This new device will help doctors detect them.
The satellite carrying the Hitomi telescope, designed to observe X-rays from black holes and elsewhere, has been in development for 10 years. According to JAXA officials, the technology used in the telescope can detect objects 100 micrometers across.
Hitomi was launched into space in February 2016, but the satellite broke up due to a failure of its position control system and other problems. Two months after its launch, the satellite stopped working.