The work of Australian Scientists demonstrated that X-ray diffraction of hair could be used to identify a range of diseases through structural changes that were detectable in the alpha-keratin. Over several years, they produced and published experimental evidence for specific structural changes in the alpha-keratin of hair from patients with insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes [5, 6], breast cancer [1,2,3], colon cancer [7] and Alzheimer's disease [8]. This discovery has been granted patents in the USA, Australia, Europe and New Zealand, with patents pending in other major international markets.

X-ray Diffraction and Disease

Dr Veronica James et al. [1] first reported in 1999, in the prestigious scientific journal Nature that there was a different intermolecular structure in hair from individuals with breast cancer compared to hair from healthy subjects This difference was reported as the presence of a ring superimposed on the patterns obtained from healthy subjects. This ring was reportedly observed in all samples of scalp and/or pubic hair taken from women diagnosed with breast cancer, as well as from subjects "not yet diagnosed with breast cancer but suspected of being at risk" - in other words a number of false positives were identified. It was speculated that this was because the hair test is more sensitive than mammography, and therefore these may not have been false positives but actual positives at an early stage.

Their results were remarkably consistent, and confirmed in subsequent papers by Dr James et al [2,3] including in the International Journal of Cancer, in which the results of 503 samples were reported [3]. A semi-independent validation of the assay was achieved in an animal study, and included by James et al in the International Journal of Cancer paper [3].

An independent study using a different technique Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) confirmed the structural changes in hair associated with breast cancer [9].

Further studies provide support for this observation.

To access references click here

To access the key scientific papers 1999-2008 click here