Ultraviolet Absorption in Epidermoid Cancer Cells
Ultraviolet Absorption in Epidermoid Cancer Cells
Abstract. The “excessive functional activity” of some cancer cells first found by Caspersson has been observed in fixed, stained smears of cervical epidermoid carcinomas from four patients. Preliminary results suggest that there may be a characteristic difference between the absorption profiles of some epidermoid can- cer cells and other cells found in cytological smears. It is our belief that with an appropriate electronic scanning system such cells can be detected by measure- ments of their absorptions at two different wavelengths. However, the effect on the absorptions of cells with abnormalities other than cancer, and whether every epidermoid carcinoma will contain such cells, must yet be determined.
The techniques developed by Papani- colaou (1) for preparing cytological smears of body surfaces or fluids are efficient for demonstrating the presence of cancer cells and are now widely used as a means of diagnosing certain cancers in an early and curable stage. It is known that use of the Papani- colaou techniques in a mass screening of the population may lead to early diagnosis of cancer of the uterine cervix with resulting reduction of morbidity and mortality (2). The wider application of the techniques is limited, however, by the requirement for highly trained technicians to engage in the time-consuming and tedious search for abnormal cells in each preparation. This limitation could be circumvented if a device were available for screening out a major portion of the clearly negative cases so that the cytotechnologist need only be concerned with a small fraction of the total cases.
Attempts have been made to auto-mate the screening process based on measuring the size and visible light absorption of the nuclei of specially stained and isolated cells (3) and the fluorescence of cells stained with a fluorescent dyestuff (4). These studies have not yet resulted in a usable device. Furthermore, they require stains other than the standard Papanicolaou stain, which may be disadvantageous because they make unavailable the wealth of experience already accumu- lated with this stain. Thus, suspicious or problem cases must also be proc- essed by the Papanicolaou technique for review and final evaluation. Also, many of these other preparations are not permanent and are awkward to handle on a community-wide basis.
Pages: 1 2
