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Nanomedicine

Elastic clues in cancer detection

In vitro nanomechanical studies have shown that cultured cancer cells are elastically softer than healthy ones, and new measurements on cells from cancer patients suggest that this mechanical signature may be a powerful way to detect cancer in the clinic.

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Figure 1: Detecting cancer by probing the elastic properties of cells outside the body.

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Suresh, S. Elastic clues in cancer detection. Nature Nanotech 2, 748–749 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2007.397

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