Tears may help signal cancer -- Australia scientists
REUTERS

CANBERRA, AUG 7: Tears may indicate if people have, or are likely to develop, certain types of cancer, according to a finding stumbled upon by chance by a team of Australian scientists.

Scientists at the Cooperative Research Centre for Eye Research and Technology based at the University of New South Wales in Sydney found tears of patients with certain forms of cancer, or a family history of cancer, contain a marker protein.

The protein, termed LG, is found in breast and prostate cancer where a hormone is involved in causing or maintaining the cancer.

Mark Willcox, director of the biological sciences at the Centre, said the discovery was made by scientists developing a new permanent-wear contact lens who were investigating why some people produce more tears than others.

"It was found that people whose tears contained this marker had a history of that cancer in their family," Willcox said. "The possibilities are that people who have LG in their tears are genetically disposed to those cancers, or that when they have or are developing those cancers, the protein increases in their tears."

Tears are a filtrate of the blood which pass through the lacrimal gland underneath the eyelid before entering the eye.

Willcox said the Centre was now finalising clinical trials on 50 cancer patients to determine if the marker could be used as a diagnostic test for cancer or reveal a disposition to the disease.

"This could give people a quick, easy test, if it is confirmed, to see if they are likely to develop that cancer," he said.

He said the next stage was to find a commercial backer and then conduct larger clinical trials. If the trials were found to be useful, a commercial testing kit could be on the market within two to five years.

"So far, there have been few tests based on tears and this would be certainly less invasive than looking at blood," he said.

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