Researchers from the US have come up with a small sponge-like implant that could suck up cancer cells. So far, the researchers conducted the study on mice. Findings of the study appeared in Nature Communications.

Researchers are expecting that the device could prove to be an early warning system in patients and this could help alert doctors in relation to cancer spread. It seemed that the implant also assists in stopping rogue cancer cells spreading to other parts of the body where new tumors could develop.

According to Cancer Research UK, nine in 10 cancer deaths were a result of the disease spreading to other parts of the body. It has been revealed in the experiments that implanting the device in the abdominal fat or beneath the skin captures cancer cells that had begun circulating in the body.

The implant imitated a process where cells loosened from a tumor were pushed towards other parts in the body by immune cells, according to the researchers. It was found by them that these immune cells established site on the implant, which is a natural response to any foreign body, sucking up the cancer cells.

As per study leader Prof Lonnie Shea, from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Michigan, they were looking forward to the first clinical trials in humans sometime in the future.

According to him, "We need to see if metastatic cells will show up in the implant in humans like they did in the mice, and also if it's a safe procedure and that we can use the same imaging to detect cancer cells".