The blood scanner, which is still in the prototype stage, is designed to find cancer markers in the blood stream in the early stages of the disease, when they can be treated more easily and successfully, according to . The research document also noted that the sensors can detect cancer markers in a blood sample in less than an hour.

"This is essentially a proof-of-concept study showing that now we have a chip and a reader that can find multiple biomarkers in a sample at a concentration much lower than the standard that is commercially available," said Shan Wang, a Stanford professor of materials science and electrical engineering, in a statement. "The earlier you can detect a cancer, the better chance you have to kill it. This could be especially helpful for lung cancer, ovarian cancer and pancreatic cancer, because those cancers are hidden in the body."

According to the university, the scanner is based on a silicon chip that has 64 embedded sensors. A handheld device holds the chip, which can detect changes in magnetic fields. Captured cancer proteins are tethered to magnetic nanoparticles. When the sensors detect the magnetic particles, they've also found the cancer markers.

Traditional scanners use electrically charged or glowing particles instead of magnetic nanoparticles. Since magnetism is rarely found in biological systems, researchers noted that they tend to stand out "like a flare in the night sky". The report added, "By tagging cancer proteins with tiny magnetic particles, rather than electrically charged or glowing particles as in other detectors, the new system can obtain a clearer signal from a smaller number of cancer proteins."

Using nanotechnology to fight cancer is an idea that has been growing.