A Take-Home Test for Cancer?

The new technology was designed to make testing for malaria and other diseases including cancer as cheap and easy as a take home pregnancy test.

Kristopher Sturgis

The technology involves simple paper strips that can detect a variety of different diseases for just 50 cents per strip, according to the Ohio State University chemists who created the test strips.The test requires just a simple drop of blood and can be mailed into a laboratory from virtually anywhere, including your own home.

Ideally, users would simply take a test and mail it to a lab once a month, or every few months. Then, users can be notified if any test results come back positive, and see a doctor for additional tests and diagnosis. The technology is designed to give people more power when it comes to diagnosing a disease or cancer, says Abraham Badu-Tawiah, assistant professor of chemistry and biochemistry at Ohio State and leader on the research

"We want to empower people," Badu-Tawiah said in a news release. "If you care at all about your health and you have reason to worry about a condition, then you don't want to wait until you get sick to go to the hospital. You could test yourself as often as you want. To get tested, all a person would have to do is put a drop of blood on the paper strip, fold it in half, put it in an envelope, and mail it."

The group found that the tests could still produce accurate results up to a month after the blood sample was taken, which means they could prove useful for people living in remote areas who may need more time to test the results. Badu-Tawiah says that the test was originally conceived as a means to provide a cheap diagnostic tool for malaria in resource-limited areas like rural Africa and southeast Asia, where malaria infects millions every year.

Of course, the technology wouldn't be the first device to quickly and efficiently detect malaria. In 2014 an MIT student developed a similar device that could detect malaria in patients who haven't even begun to show symptoms. The test only takes about a minute to use, and only costs about 25 cents.

Badu-Tawiah and his colleagues think their device takes this kind of testing to the next level, as it can be adapted to test for a myriad of different diseases including ovarian cancer and cancer of the large intestine. The paper strips contain small synthetic chemical probes that carry a positive charge, which allow for ultra-sensitive detection by a handheld mass spectrometer. These synthetic chemical  probes also cannot be affected by light, temperature, or humidity--which means even the harshest conditions of Africa won't spoil the test strips.

While the initial prototype test costs just 50 cents, Badu-Tawiah believes the costs could go down even further with mass production. The group envisions that the greatest cost will fall on medical facilities, who would need to purchase mass spectrometers to read the tests. In countries like the U.S. where mass spectrometers are more common the test could have an even greater impact.

The test could be particularly useful for people who have a family history of cancer, or for patients in remission from cancer. The tests could be a cheaper alternative to returning to the doctor every six months to confirm that cancer is still in remission, and could also help people with a family history of cancer to monitor their health more frequently. The result could be fewer out of pocket expenses and less trips to the doctor--something every patient would benefit from.

Badu-Tawiah and his colleagues have licensed the technology to a medical diagnostics company for further development, and are hoping the test strips can be ready for clinical application within the next three years. They also have plans to make the test less invasive by developing strips that can sample saliva or urine as the test material, rather than blood. 

Kristopher Sturgis is a contributor to Qmed.

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[Image courtesy of Ohio State University]