kuwaits Scientist Develops Cancer Detection Technique

A Kuwaiti scientist developed a sensitive and simple technique to detect bladder cancer. Member of Kuwait University's Faculty of Medicine Dr. May Al-Maghrebi said the technique detects bladder cancer through collecting urine samples, which makes it a non-invasive, sensitive and simple procedure wherein specific genes are detected at a molecular level.

Al-Maghrebi explained that current diagnostic methods of bladder cancer require collections of blood samples or tissue biopsy. "This non-invasive and sensitive method may prove to be of interest for molecular tumor diagnostics," she added.

Al-Maghrebi has made a research paper entitled 'Non-invasive Detection of Survivin, a Sensitive Novel Marker in Bladder Cancer Diagnosis'. She explained that the research study demonstrates that accurate quantitative measurement of the survivin gene expression has high potential for identification of tumor cells in urine.

Recently, survivin has been identified to be associated with common cancers. It is believed that the existence of survivin contributes to the clinical outcome of tumor prognosis and malignant behavior.

As for details of the research, she said that for over two years, samples from 200 patients were collected and the subjects were split into four groups: normal, recently diagnosed bladder cancer, recurrent cancer and cancer in remission. The diagnosis of all patients was made by means of a cytoscopy, which is a routine examination of the internal surface of the bladder.

Speaking about the study's motives, Al-Maghrebi said, "The recent advancements in the field of genetics, partly driven by the Human Genome Project, has opened the door for new, non-invasive and quick methods at both detecting the presence of disease as well as its stage and progression through the quantification of molecular cancer markers."

Al-Maghrebi pointed out that novel and sensitive diagnostic cancer-specific markers have been identified and this will help to differentiate between malignant and benign growth. "The study, funded by Kuwait University's Research Administration, is at its final stages. All data has been collected, analyzed and the manuscript is being written for publication in an international peer-reviewed journal," she added.

Al-Maghrebi is an associate professor of biochemistry. In 2000, she earned a PhD in molecular biology and genetics from the US-based Medical College of Virginia. She is the recipient of Kuwait University's "Best Young Researcher Award" in 2003, as well as a number of other local and international awards.

http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=137969

Dr. May Al-Maghrebi may be reached at: malmaghrebi@hsc.kuniv.edu.kw