Page 65 - Bio Engineering Approaches to Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment

3.5 Combination of imaging and immunodiagnostics 63

them. For advancements in this technique, further development of more specific
molecular imaging probes that target pathologic characteristics, ideally for imaging
modalities without radiation exposure for the patient, is necessary. Tumor detection
without the need of invasive procedures like biopsies or surgery is considered as
another feature of molecular imaging. However, this detection is very difficult for
traditional imaging techniques such as CT and MRI. It has been shown that Imaging
with PET technique doesn’t have the ability to detect tumor cells at its early stage
while molecular imaging due to high sensitivity can detect these small tumor cells
therefore, ultimately, molecular imaging may be able to determine the best treatment.
Early detection, accurate staging, and complete surgical removal are crucial in
order to successfully treat and potentially cure patients with solid cancers. The com-
bination of imaging and immunodiagnostics can provide the necessary techniques
to improve cancer diagnoses and could allow for cost-effective personal treatment
approaches for patients. Molecular imaging techniques, PET and other techniques
are continuously advancing to create effective noninvasive techniques for cancer
diagnosis [47–49].

3.5.1 Urine as a noninvasive body fluid
Noninvasive methods in all areas of medicine are important. Stem cell research
remains an interesting and exciting area that possesses the potential of improving
healthcare for human beings [50–52]. Although stem cells are derived from bone
marrow or adipose tissue and is a known method for IPS, it is an invasive method
because it can damage the patient's body. Therefore, IPS isolating cells from urine
has been under development, as urine is a good source of stem cells. Several studies
show that urine is a good body fluid for cancer detection too. In the recent study in
2018, Woo et al. have investigated the detection of androgen-receptor splice variant
7 (AR-V7) which is associated with castration-resistant prostate cancer, in the RNA
of urine sample of patients [53]. They found that it is detectable in urine samples and
they also have discovered that AR-V7 transcript levels and the AR-V7/AR-FL ratio
in urinary EVs were higher in patients with advanced prostate cancer. This study can
be a first report that urine-derived RNA is a reliable source for AR-V7 expression
analysis. Therefore, this result can open windows for researchers into liquid biopsies
as a noninvasive approach. It can be said that if this kind of receptor is detectable, it
must have some protein in which the measurement of its levels can be reliable, and
a method for cancer diagnosis or investigation of cancer stage during cancer therapy
can be used [54].
In general, cancer is a disease that can be easily treated if diagnosed quickly.
Therefore, the use of various techniques for rapid and accurate diagnoses has always
been significant. The study of PoAbs and MoAbs, along with immunosensor tech-
niques can accelerate the diagnosis of this disease. Today's knowledge of genomic
assays has been incorporated and combined with proteomic assay methods. In addi-
tion to these methods, the use of protein detection techniques and the combination of
these methods have helped imaging techniques such as MRI and CT.