TLDR X-ray diffraction of hair might help detect breast cancer non-invasively.
The study analyzed hair fibers from women with breast cancer using synchrotron-derived X-ray diffraction and identified a unique feature in the diffraction patterns, a ring with a molecular spacing of 4.76 ± 0.07 nm, which was absent in hair from women without breast cancer. The results were consistent across different hairs from the same subject and different synchrotron beamlines. The study highlighted the importance of sample handling, exposure, and image analysis methodologies. The findings suggested that X-ray diffraction of hair could potentially serve as a non-invasive test for detecting breast cancer, although independent confirmation was still needed.
42 citations,
January 2005 in “Applied spectroscopy” Hair from breast cancer patients shows changes in structure and composition, and a test using these changes detected cancer but also falsely identified some healthy samples as cancerous.
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17 citations,
June 2001 in “Journal of the National Cancer Institute” A specific hair diffraction pattern may indicate breast cancer if tested with the correct method.
6 citations,
January 2012 in “Breast cancer” Breast cancer may be detectable through changes in scalp hair lipids.
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30 citations,
April 2017 in “Journal of structural biology” Human hair keratin fibers have a detailed nano-scale structure that changes with different conditions.
7 citations,
June 2017 in “Omics” The study developed a method to analyze ancient hair proteins using very small samples.
1 citations,
December 2018 in “IntechOpen eBooks” Human hair shows promise for non-invasive medical testing, but more research is needed to standardize its use.
2 citations,
July 2023 in “Cosmetics” Surfactants in shampoos and conditioners remove some but not all lipids from hair, and more research is needed to understand their full impact.
