Early detection of oral cancer - Is dielectrophoresis the answer?

The early detection of oral, squamous cell carcinoma by non-invasive methods has the potential to hasten diagnosis and thus lessen the morbidity associated with tumour therapy. Dielectrophoresis (DEP) can non-invasively determine etectrophysiological parameters such as conductivity and permittivity of cellular cytoplasm and membrane. The present study demonstrates that DEP can be utilised to characterise H357 and UP cells and reveals that there are significant differences in these parameters between malignant and more normal, epithelial, cell tines. The present results suggest that DEP has potential for the early detection of cancerous from non-cancerous cells in a clinical setting. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.