Patent ID: 9683982
Date: 2017-06-20
CPC Classifications: G01L,G01N

Claim:
1. A method for diagnosis and/or prognosis of cancers comprising the analysis of the engineering strain of cells subjected to a mechanical load, said cells obtained from a sample of tissue from a patient, the method comprising the steps of: a) applying a mechanical load to each cell such that linear deformation of said cell is to be expected, wherein said mechanical load is applied to said cell by an optical stretcher/tweezers; b) determining by optical methods said engineering strain on said cell in the direction of load application at the time of applying said mechanical load, c) repeating steps a) and b) for a plurality of cells and determining a distribution of the determined engineering strain for all analyzed cells, d) determining the proportion of cells in said sample, which under a mechanical load exhibit engineering strain in a direction opposite to the direction of stressing, e) comparing the proportion of cells of step d) with reference data obtained by treating cells of the same type of tissue of one or more healthy individuals or of healthy tissue from the same patient according to steps a) to d), and f) determining that the patient is at risk of tumor metastases when a proportion of cells, that under a mechanical load exhibit engineering strain in a direction opposite to the direction of stressing, is higher in said sample than said reference data.