Fractals can catch cancer
Analyzing shapes of cell borders may prove useful in diagnosis
By Sam Lemonick
The geometric patterns known as fractals make for pretty pictures; one day they might help doctors diagnose cancers faster and more accurately.
Looking for a better alternative to the staining methods traditionally used on biopsied cells, Joachim Spatz and colleagues at the University of Heidelberg in Germany focused on patterns at the edges of pancreatic cancer cells. The group reported September 30 in Nano Letters that quantifying “fractalness” along individual cell borders allowed the researchers to distinguish between two types of cancer 97 percent of the time. Even in combination, the best staining techniques are right only about 85 times out of 100.