The technology of flowing cytometry is used to diagnose cancer and immunological diseases by morphological parameters of blood cells. This technology appeared in laboratories 40 years ago and has now exhausted the technical potential of the development. This is particularly evident during the haematological analysis, when detailed information on blood cells of a patient with clinical abnormalities is needed. In these cases, diagnostic laboratory staff uses an optical microscope to study the samples, it leads to an increase of the subjective factor in the analysis and, ultimately, reduces the accuracy of the analysis in view of little amount of statistics.
Unlike the standard flowing cytometry, the proposed technology of scanning flowing cytometry (SFC) allows measuring the morphological characteristics of the particles in a wide angular range, which increases the amount of data received. As a result, the blood cells can be characterized by a set of static indices, for example, the size of cell, the size of membrane area, the size of the cell nucleus, the density of nucleus, cell shape, etc. During the kinetic measurements of intra- and intercellular processes, the following dynamic characteristics of studied processes are defined: membrane permeability, cell aggregation efficiency, speed of the antigen-antibody reaction on membranes, the membrane stiffness, etc.
The technology offers piece-by-piece analysis of cells in flow with speed up to 300 cells per second, providing a high statistical accuracy, and it can reliably detect small populations. The cell flow is illuminated by the laser beam, light scattering of each of the moving cells is measured, the measured data are analysed and the conclusion of a cell and its characteristics is performed. A typical cell size for analysis is 0.1-20 microns.
Therefore, scanning flowing cytometry allows decoding of subtle mechanisms of the disease in each patient, monitoring the results of treatment, and timely adjusting it depending on the sensitivity of tumors to therapy.
Personalized selection of therapies, adjustable for type of the disease, increases the success of the treatment of blood cancer diseases, reduces the duration (and therefore cost) of treatment. This eventually leads to a reduction in mortality from cancer, saving of labor force, increase in average life expectancy and improved quality of life.