Scientists of the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, the Medical University of Silesia and the University of Silesia in Katowice are conducting pioneering studies of tissues using synchrotron radiation at the SOLARIS National Synchrotron Radiation Center in Krakow.

Polish scientists want to check how cancer begins to develop in cells and how oxygen behaves in cancer cells.

Cells’ oxygen content is the basis for cancer development, infiltration and metastasis. Its quantity cannot be tested by physical means, but it is possible indirectly by monitoring changes in iron valency. The device that will enable us to monitor these changes and analyze them is in the SOLARIS Center – explains team leader Dr Jarosław Paluch, Laryngology Clinic of the Clinical Hospital of the Medical University of Silesia in Katowice.

In the next part, the researchers intend to check how proteins behave in cancer cells. Oxygen and protein studies are complementary and will allow conclusions to be drawn about the mechanism of tumor formation.