Contact Lenses That 'See' Cancer

young woman inserting a contact lens

Currently, there are only a few ways to detect cancer and they can be invasive and often unpleasant. What if it was possible to detect cancer with contact lenses?

Researchers at the Terasaki Institute are working to develop a contact lens that can detect cancer by identifying cancer cell products (called exosomes) in tears. The contact lens are coated with antibody proteins that can stick to exosomes. Once they are stuck together, a color change reveals the presence of cancer.

So far, the concept has been shown to work with cells in the lab, but they are working to try the lenses in rabbits.

Image Credit
Pixabay.