In a remarkable example of interdisciplinary teamwork, astronomers are helping cancer researchers use computerized stargazing algorithms developed for spotting distant galaxies to identify biomarkers in tumors to determine how aggressive they are.

Cancer researchers in the UK adapted astronomers’ algorithms and tested them on 2,000 breast cancer tumors. The current method of analyzing tumor aggressiveness relies on skilled pathologists looking at tumor samples through microscopes, trying to spot subtle differences. The astronomers’ image analysis algorithms were developed to help them pick out indistinct objects in the night sky, and a computerized approach like this could speed up the process of analysis.

On the Medical News Today website, Catharine Paddock quotes pathologist Raza Ali as saying, "We’ve exploited the natural overlap between the techniques astronomers use to analyze deep sky images from the largest telescopes and the need to pinpoint subtle differences in the staining of tumor samples down the microscope."

Paddock quotes astronomer Nicholas Walton as saying, "It’s great that our image analysis software, which was originally developed to help, for instance, track down planets harboring life outside of our solar system, is now also being used to help improve the outlook for cancer patients, much closer to home."

The next time you get your mammogram, will you get your "chart" read as well? (No, that’s ASTROLOGY–NOTE Subscribers can still listen to this show. They can also listen to Anne Strieber’s interviews with people who were HEALED by the Visitors).

You’re going to make LOTS of new discoveries at our incredible Nashville Symposium in May. Better get your tickets now, before we sell out: click here.

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