CanScan

Google ‘cancer cell’ under the images category and it will return over 5 million hits.  Many of the images are indeed impressive, in particular the 3D examples of cells displayed in brilliant colors (thank you photoshop).

Google 'cancer cell' and this is what you'll see...

If you look closely at these images, you’ll notice that these cancer cells all share a very similar set of features, in that they have a rather rounded body and are accompanied by tons of tiny little extensions.  The rounded cell body, is where the cancerous DNA resides, making up a bulk of this space (besides other stuff like proteins and mitochondria).  The tiny finger-like projections are adhesion sites, and this is how cancer cells can attach to surfaces – like on the interior lining of a blood vessel.  The 3D images of cells were acquired on a scanning electron microscope, or SEM if you prefer acronyms.  Unfortunately, taking a picture of these cells will mean you’ll have to kill them first, in a process called fixation (think taxidermy).

Now if you google ‘cancer cell’ under the videos category, you’ll return a few videos of cancer cells, followed by a slew of doctors in their lab coats talking about cancer (almost 2 million videos will be returned, and most of them are of the talking variety).  What’s a little disappointing is the lack of high quality videos depicting cancer cells actually moving (invading or metastasizing ).  Here are some good examples:

Now, here is CanScan’s example (Full disclosure, I think our video is one of the more impressive examples):

Note about the video: A PtK1 cell is a cancer cell line derived from the kidney’s of potoroo kangaroos, a marsupial/rodent found in Australia. Videos of invading human cancer cells will be coming soon…

— James Lim