Scientists from three universities have developed a non-invasive diagnostic tool that combines the functions of virtual biopsy and molecular imaging to significantly improve clinical diagnosis of skin diseases, researchers said on Thursday.
Experiments conducted on laboratory animals using the new tool have been successful and results show the tool can effectively detect indications of oral cancer in hamsters, team members said, adding that they were looking forward to conducting human testing.
The team — led by Shieh Dar-bin (謝達斌) of National Cheng-Kung University, Sun Chi-kuang (孫啟光) of National Taiwan University and Lin Kuan-jiuh (林寬鋸) of National Chung-Hsing University — has presented its findings in the journals Optics Express and Advanced Materials.
Shieh, an oral surgeon, said that it was very difficult to determine if a patient has oral cancer.
With the help of the new tool, surgeons can more easily locate a cancer nidus without invasive measures, Shieh said.
In related news, researchers at the National Health Research Institute said on Thursday that the Taiwanese subproject of a phase two clinical test for cancer drug ADI-PEG 20 has been successful and that following phase three clinical testing, the drug should be on the market some time next year.
They said ADI-PEG 20 is a protein drug that can break down the arginine in human blood to inhibit the development of cancer cells.
Arginine, an alpha-amino acid, plays a vital role in cell division, wound healing, ammonia removal, immune functions and the release of hormones.
Once the arginine in blood is removed, cancer cells will lose their most important source of nutrition, leading to their death. Normal cells will survive arginine deprivation because they can synthesize arginine within themselves, the scientists said.
A group of Taiwanese-American and Tibetan-American students at Harvard University on Saturday disrupted Chinese Ambassador to the US Xie Feng’s (謝鋒) speech at the school, accusing him of being responsible for numerous human rights violations. Four students — two Taiwanese Americans and two from Tibet — held up banners inside a conference hall where Xie was delivering a speech at the opening ceremony of the Harvard Kennedy School China Conference 2024. In a video clip provided by the Coalition of Students Resisting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), Taiwanese-American Cosette Wu (吳亭樺) and Tibetan-American Tsering Yangchen are seen holding banners that together read:
UNAWARE: Many people sit for long hours every day and eat unhealthy foods, putting them at greater risk of developing one of the ‘three highs,’ an expert said More than 30 percent of adults aged 40 or older who underwent a government-funded health exam were unaware they had at least one of the “three highs” — high blood pressure, high blood lipids or high blood sugar, the Health Promotion Administration (HPA) said yesterday. Among adults aged 40 or older who said they did not have any of the “three highs” before taking the health exam, more than 30 percent were found to have at least one of them, Adult Preventive Health Examination Service data from 2022 showed. People with long-term medical conditions such as hypertension or diabetes usually do not
POLICE INVESTIGATING: A man said he quit his job as a nurse at Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital as he had been ‘disgusted’ by the behavior of his colleagues A man yesterday morning wrote online that he had witnessed nurses taking photographs and touching anesthetized patients inappropriately in Taipei Tzu Chi Hospital’s operating theaters. The man surnamed Huang (黃) wrote on the Professional Technology Temple bulletin board that during his six-month stint as a nurse at the hospital, he had seen nurses taking pictures of patients, including of their private parts, after they were anesthetized. Some nurses had also touched patients inappropriately and children were among those photographed, he said. Huang said this “disgusted” him “so much” that “he felt the need to reveal these unethical acts in the operating theater
Heat advisories were in effect for nine administrative regions yesterday afternoon as warm southwesterly winds pushed temperatures above 38°C in parts of southern Taiwan, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. As of 3:30pm yesterday, Tainan’s Yujing District (玉井) had recorded the day’s highest temperature of 39.7°C, though the measurement will not be included in Taiwan’s official heat records since Yujing is an automatic rather than manually operated weather station, the CWA said. Highs recorded in other areas were 38.7°C in Kaohsiung’s Neimen District (內門), 38.2°C in Chiayi City and 38.1°C in Pingtung’s Sandimen Township (三地門), CWA data showed. The spell of scorching