MIT researchers have built a handheld device that could help doctors detect ovarian and other cancers earlier, when they are far more treatable. Ovarian cancer is often caught late. Caught early, the five-year survival rate can exceed 90%, but it drops below half when the disease reaches stages 3 or 4. The device, developed by Professor Kripa Varanasi’s group at MIT with colleagues at Johns Hopkins, uses fluid flow to gently collect living cells from tiny areas of tissue. One syringe creates a vacuum seal against the tissue; a second syringe drives liquid through a channel, shearing cells off while leaving surrounding tissue intact. A study published in the journal Device on September 24 showed the collected cells stayed alive and grew in culture more readily than with conventional methods. The team turned fallopian tube cells into organoids for testing. The approach can be tuned: loosely attached prostate cancer cells detached at 1 pascal of stress, while few bone cancer cells detached even at 5 pascals.