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US 4,070,576 AGranted
Detecting malignant cells
AssigneeAmerican Science and Engineering, Inc.
InventorCarolus M. Cobb
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
The detection of malignant or dysplastic cells in a tissue sample, by treating the sample with a solution containing radioactive gallium and relying upon the greater take-up of the gallium by the malignant or dysplastic cells relative to normal cells to provide a detectable signal of malignancy, is improved by including non-radioactive preemptive species in the solution to pre-empt potential gallium binding sites in protein molecules of normal cells. The pre-emptive species may be one or more of scandium, indium or yttrium.
Claims4
Cytological examination method comprising,
- suspending a cell population in a carrier fluid together with a radioactive tracer species which is linkable to both normal and abnormal cells, but more readily to one than the other, in essentially repeatable differential uptake pattern,
- further incorporating in said such suspension a preemptive species which pre-emptively links to the type of cell which is less readily linked by the tracer species to enhance the pattern of differential uptake of tracer by suspended cells,
- and measuring radioactivity of separate portions of the cell population to produce decay count data based on extent of tracer pickup by each such portion,
- wherein the tracer species is gallium and the pre-emptive species is selected from the class consisting of indium, yttrium and scandium.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.