Researchers at Brown University, United States, have devised a new technique that uses gold nanoparticles to spot cancerous tumors in the liver. It is the first such technique to use metal nanoparticles as agents to enhance X-ray scattering images of tumor-like masses. Hepatocellular carcinoma is the most common cancer to strike the liver and effects more than 500,000 people worldwide yearly, concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Most afflicted die within six months, with lack of an early diagnosis being a big obstacle to successful treatment. Current techniques can only spot the tumor when it has grown to five centimeters in diameter. The method developed at Brown is able to spot masses as small as five millimeters. According to Christoph Rose-Petruck, a professor of chemistry, “What we’re doing is not a screening method. But in a routine exam, with people who have risk factors, such as certain types of hepatitis, we can use this technique to see a tumor that is just a few millimeters in diameter, which, in terms of size, is a factor of 10 smaller.” The team says the X-ray scatter imaging method could be used to detect nanoparticle assemblies in other organs. Danielle Rand, a graduate student in chemistry, said, “The idea should be that if you can figure out to get that [nanoparticle] to specific sites in the body, you can figure out how to image it.” The team’s findings were published in the journal Nano Letters.