Tiny Tech #54 Wearable Sensors for Monitoring Cancer

Today from the world of Tiny Tech:

Doctors know that a treatment for cancer is probably working if the tumor shrinks in size. Today, tumor size is usually measured every couple of months or so, but it would be useful if the size could be monitored continuously. Well, to do this, scientists have recently made a prototype sensor constructed from a special kind of flexible plastic containing hafnium oxide nanoparticles. For tumors just under the skin, their size can be monitored simply by wearing the sensor over the tumor. As the tumor grows or shrinks, the plastic sheet expands or compresses, and the changing distances between nanoparticles generates an electrical signal. The signal can be relayed by a smartphone, so that doctors can monitor in real time if a particular treatment is causing the tumor to shrink.

The sensor was used in combination with one kind of cancer treatment called sonodynamic therapy. The researchers also injected the hafnium oxide nanoparticles into the bloodstream of a mouse having a tumor under its skin. When the tumor was irradiated with ultrasound, the nanoparticles generated cancer-killing chemicals. And the prototype sensor showed that the tumor steadily got smaller over several days.

I’d say that was a pretty sense-ational result.

Tiny Tech is made possible by the National Science Foundation and WUFT. To learn more about Tiny Tech, go to tinytechradio.org.

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