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Using hair to screen for breast cancer

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Abstract

We have studied hair using fibre X-ray diffraction studies with synchrotron radiation and find that hair from breast-cancer patients has a different intermolecular structure to hair from healthy subjects. These changes are seen in all samples of scalp and pubic hair taken from women diagnosed with breast cancer. All the hair samples from women who tested positive for a mutation of the BRCA1 gene, which is associated with a higher risk of breast cancer1, also show these changes. Because our results are so consistent, we propose that such hair analyses may be used as a simple, non-invasive screening method for breast cancer.

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Figure 1: X-ray scattering patterns.

References

  1. Struewing, J. P.et al. N. Engl. J. Med. 336, 1401–1408 (1997).

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  3. James, V. J. & Amemiya, Y. Textile Res. J. 68, 167–170 (1998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rex Vowels Low Angle Diffraction Laboratory, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 2052, New South Wales, Australia

    Veronica James

  2. Cancer Care Centre, St George Hospital, Kogarah, 2217, Australia

    John Kearsley

  3. BCPS Department, BioCAT, Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, 60616, Illinois, USA

    Tom Irving

  4. Engineering Research Unit, School of Engineering, University of Tokyo, 2-11-16 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, 113, Tokyo, Japan

    Yoshiyuki Amemiya

  5. Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Private Mail Bag 1, Menai, 2234, New South Wales, Australia

    David Cookson

Authors
  1. Veronica James
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  2. John Kearsley
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  3. Tom Irving
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  4. Yoshiyuki Amemiya
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  5. David Cookson
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James, V., Kearsley, J., Irving, T. et al. Using hair to screen for breast cancer. Nature 398, 33–34 (1999). https://doi.org/10.1038/17949

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/17949

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