Breast cancer diagnoses can be harder to come by in countries with fewer resources, while current diagnostic methods have their own challenges, even if patients can access them. In an attempt to find a more accurate and more accessible option, researchers have turned to a butterfly wing. 

A team at the University of California San Diego recently tested a morpho butterfly wing as an aid in breast cancer biopsies. They thought it may be helpful due to its microscopic structures that manipulate light. To conduct their study, published in the journal Advanced Materials and supported by the National Cancer Institute, they placed the wing underneath breast cancer biopsy samples before looking at them with a microscope.

They found that because components in both the wing and the fibrous tissue sample respond to polarized light, the wing helped boost the signal from the tissue. This made it easier to study the makeup of the fibrous tissue, which can accumulate as cancer progresses. Understanding how much accumulation has occurred can help determine how advanced the cancer is. Specifically, the wing allowed the researchers to understand the density and arrangement of collagen fibers in the tissue.

This technique, which they called the Morpho-Enhanced Polarized Light Microscopy (MorE-PoL) platform, provides an alternative to the current staining and imaging options, which researchers say can be subjective or too expensive.

Lisa Poulikakos, senior author and professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at UCSD, explains, “We can apply this technique using standard optical microscopes that clinics already have. And it’s more objective and quantitative than what is currently available.”

The hope is that this new imaging option can be expanded to help understand the properties of fibrous tissue microstructure, while providing a more accurate and accessible tool for cancer screening, particularly for areas in need.

Paula Kirya, first author and UCSD mechanical engineering graduate student, explains, “Essentially, we’re trying to expand on these procedures with a stain-free alternative that requires nothing more than a standard optical microscope and a piece of a Morpho wing. In many parts of the world, early cancer screening is a challenge because of resource limitations. If we can provide a simpler and more accessible tool, we can help more patients get diagnosed before their cancers reach aggressive stages.”

You can read more on their research here.