Letters to the editor
Can hair be used to screen for breast cancer?
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
EDITOR
The use of hair as a biopsy tissue
has been considered for some time. For instance, in the case of
breast cancer, raised zinc levels in head hair have been
reported.1 Besides, x ray diffraction patterns of hair are rich and have attracted much attention
for 70 years.2 However, its potential use as a diagnostic indicator of disease was only suggested a short time
ago.3 Most recently, James et
al4 reported that x ray
diffraction of hair taken from women diagnosed with breast cancer (and
those at high risk by virtue of a proven
BRCA1/BRCA2
mutation) showed a diffuse ring. They claimed a 100% correlation with
the disease, advocating the use of pubic hair as a simple non-invasive
screening method for breast cancer. The use of pubic hair was suggested in view of possible damage to the head hair from cosmetic treatments. Despite this note of caution,
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This article has been cited by other articles:
-
Meyer, P., James, V. J.
(2001). Experimental Confirmation of a Distinctive Diffraction Pattern in Hair From Women With Breast Cancer. JNCI J Natl Cancer Inst
93: 873-875
[Full Text] -
James, V.
(2001). The importance of good images in using hair to screen for breast cancer. J. Med. Genet.
38: 16e-16
[Full Text]
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