Fingerprint to soon replace mammogram for breast cancer detection

A simple fingerprint test to check for breast cancer could eventually replace the mammogram, saving lives and money and increasing the number of tests carried out, according to researchers at Sheffield Hallam University.

Fingerprints contain sweat and the test looks at the molecular make-up of a fingerprint using mass spectrometry, a system that measures the atomic weight of particles and molecules to identify them.

According to a report in Reuters “The bulk of my research has been, for nearly 15 years, in forensics but I have discovered a few years ago the possibility to cross over from forensic to medical diagnostics using sweat,” Simona Francese, professor of Forensic and Bioanalytical Mass Spectrometry at Sheffield Hallam University, told Reuters.

Prof. Francese’s forensic research was aimed at helping to profile criminal suspects by providing intelligence about their lifestyle using just their fingerprints and the realization that they could identify cancer markers too, was a eureka moment.

“Sweat contains a lot of different molecules but what we’re interested in is proteins,” she said.

“Those proteins and the different levels of expression of those proteins and different factors of expression tell us whether a patient has a benign pathology or has early (stage) cancer or is metastatic and we use artificial intelligence to make sense of those mass spectrometry data,” she said.

The pioneering research relies on Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization Mass Spectrometry (MALDI-MS), using machines made in the UK by the Waters Corporation.

“From the smear of a fingerprint,” said Dr. Jim Langridge, a scientific fellow at Waters Corporation, “We can actually determine control samples from potentially cancer samples.”

The hope is, in the future, a simple non-invasive fingerprint test could replace the mammogram which is not only painful but involves travelling to a specialist center with trained staff for an appointment that takes at least 20 minutes. Although, Prof. Francese says mammograms and biopsies are all we have currently have to identify breast cancer.

“I absolutely will encourage women to take those tests because they still save lives,” she said. — Report from Reuters

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