Category: Oncology

Background  Optical coherence tomography (OCT) allows real-time, in vivo examination of basal cell carcinoma (BCC). A new high definition OCT with high lateral and axial resolution in a horizontal (en-face) and vertical (slice) imaging mode offers additional information in the diagnosis of BCC and may potentially replace invasive diagnostic biopsies. Objectives  To define the characteristic morphologic features of BCC by using high definition optical coherence tomography (HD-OCT) compared to conventional histology. Methods  A total of 22 BCCs were examined preoperatively by HD-OCT in the en-face and slice imaging mode and characteristic features were evaluated in comparison to the histopathological findings ...

Barrett's oesophagus is a metaplastic condition with an inherent risk of progression to adenocarcinoma. It is essential to identify dysplastic changes within Barrett's oesophagus in order to individualise surveillance strategies and establish which patients warrant endoscopic treatment. There is a trend towards endoscopic resection of focal high-grade dysplasia followed by whole segment ablation. However, endoscopic identification of dysplastic lesions is unreliable and subjective making targeted therapy extremely difficult. In addition, the current practice of taking random quadrantic biopsies may miss dysplastic disease and intramucosal adenocarcinoma. Several advanced endoscopic imaging techniques have been described and tested in clinical trials ...

The past decade has seen dramatic technological advances in the field of optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging. These advances have driven commercialization and clinical adoption in ophthalmology, cardiology and gastrointestinal cancer screening. Recently, an array of OCT-based imaging tools that have been developed for preclinical intravital cancer imaging applications has yielded exciting new capabilities to probe and to monitor cancer progression and response in vivo. Here, we review these results, forecast the future of OCT for preclinical cancer imaging and discuss its exciting potential to translate to the clinic as a tool for monitoring cancer therapy.

Optical measurements of tissue changes during photodynamic and radiation-based cancer treatments help to develop and improve these therapies.  Novel optical technologies can provide detailed microscopic information about tissue structure and physiology in a non-invasive manner, minimizing patient discomfort. This otherwise unobtainable information can help physicians select the best treatments, thus greatly benefiting patients. When used for early disease detection, it results in more effective curative therapies. It also allows inspection of the progress of various therapies to ensure they are working, enabling improvements to be made. We have investigated this last aspect of the benefits of optical methods, showing how ...

Background: Oculocutaneous albinism is a group of autosomal recessive disorders featuring hypopigmentation of the hair, skin and eyes. Ocular signs associated with the disease are nystagmus, decreased visual acuity, hypopigmentation of the retina, foveal hypoplasia, translucency of the iris, macular transparency, photophobia and abnormal decussation of nerve fibers at the chiasm. Case Report: An 8-year-old Caucasian girl presented to our clinic ‘Referral Center for Hereditary Retinopathies’ of the Second University of Naples with a diagnosis of Stargardt disease and a progressive reduction in visual acuity in both eyes. She underwent a complete ophthalmic examination including standard electroretinography and optical coherence ...

Michelson Diagnostics (‘Michelson’) has announced an investment of £607k by shareholders Octopus Investments (‘Octopus’), Catapult Venture Managers (‘Catapult’) and individual investors, especially London Business Angels. The investment, which was an extension to the £1.92M investment in October 2011, will be used to further expand sales & support infrastructure in both USA and Europe, as Michelson’s installed base of ‘VivoSight’ skin cancer laser scanners continues to expand. The Company’s first product based on its patented multi‐beam optical coherence tomography (OCT) technology, the VivoSight scanner, is expected to revolutionise the market for the non‐invasive diagnosis and treatment of ...

A pair of local research projects got a financial boost Monday from the federal government. FedNor Minister Tony Clement announced about $700,000 at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre for two research projects Monday. The first funding announcement revolves around a medical imaging device that will allow surgeons to scan breast tumour tissue that has been removed to ensure all the cancerous tissue was removed. Tornado Medical Systems Inc. will receive a loan of $363,348 to develop a prototype of the device. CEO Stefan Larson said instead of sending the tissue to a lab, the device will ...

Ovarian cancer is difficult to diagnose in its early stages because symptoms often don’t manifest themselves until the disease has spread, and also because there is no effective screening method. Researchers at the University of Connecticut and the University of Southern California (U.S.A.) have developed a multi-mode imaging probe that could examine ovarian tissue via minimally invasive surgery (Biomed. Opt. Exp. 2, 2551; doi: 10.1364/ BOE.2.002551). The device built by Quing Zhu and her colleagues integrates optical coherence tomography (OCT), photoacoustic imaging and ultrasound

We present a benchmark pilot study in which high-resolution Full-Field Optical Coherence Tomography (FF-OCT) is used to image human breast tissue and is evaluated to assess its ability to aid the pathologist's management of intra-operative diagnoses. Our aim included evaluating the safety of FF-OCT on human tissue and determining the concordance between the images obtained with routinely prepared histopathological material. The compact device used for this study provides a 2 {\mu}m-lateral and a 1 {\mu}m-axial resolution, and is able to scan a 1.5cm^2 specimen in about 7 minutes. 75 breast specimens obtained from 22 patients ...

Biopsy remains the gold standard, but newer tools are useful adjuncts. More than 3.5 million skin cancers are diagnosed in more than 2 million patients in the United States each year, 1 and evidence from the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) suggests that 20% of Americans will develop skin cancer. Basal cell and squamous cell carcinomas (BCC and SCC, respectively) are the two most common forms, accounting for about 96% of non-melanoma skin cancer (NMSC), and are easily treated, 2,3 with the latter more likely to spread to the lymph nodes. Both BCC and SCC are increasingly being ...

Background The purpose of the present study was to determine normal values of epithelial thickness within the oral cavity by using optical coherence tomography (OCT). MethodsIn a total of 143 healthy test persons, epithelial thickness of the oral mucosa was determined with the help of OCT separately for each side at 7 different locations. Special attention was directed to those sites having the highest incidence for the development of dysplasias and carcinomas.ResultsThe epithelium demonstrated a varying thickness depending on its location within the oral cavity. The highest values were found in the region of the buccal mucosa (294 μm ...

A method of and determining the extent of a structure (1), such as a non- melanoma skin cancer, in or on the skin of a subject, the method comprising the steps of: placing an index marker (3) on the skin adjacent to the structure (1); positioning an optical coherence tomography device (8) relative to the index marker; using the optical coherence tomography device (8) to image the structure (1) so as to create an image of a cross- section through the skin determining the position of an edge of the structure (1) in the image; and translating that position of ...

Architectural changes in and remodeling of the bronchial and pulmonary vasculature are important pathways in diseases such as asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and lung cancer. However, there is a lack of methods that can find and examine small bronchial vasculature in vivo. Structural lung airway imaging using optical coherence tomography (OCT) has previously been shown to be of great utility in examining bronchial lesions during lung cancer screening under the guidance of autofluorescence bronchoscopy. Using a fiber optic endoscopic OCT probe, we acquire OCT images from in vivo human subjects. The side-looking, circumferentially-scanning probe is inserted down the ...

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) is a minimally-invasive imaging modality capable of tracking the development of individual colonic adenomas. As such, OCT can be used to evaluate the mechanisms and effectiveness of chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents in colorectal cancer models. The data presented here represent part of a larger study evaluating α-difluoromethylornithine (DFMO) and Sulindac as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents using mice treated with the carcinogen azoxymethane (AOM). 27 A/J mice were included in the chemoprevention study, subdivided into four treatment groups (No Drug, DFMO, Sulindac, DFMO/Sulindac). 30 mm lateral images of each colon at eight different rotations were ...

Objective To establish and validate an ex vivo human cervical tissue model for optical coherence tomography (OCT) studies with special emphasis on investigating time dependent structural changes of the epithelium. Methods Four hundred OCT images were taken from 80 unsuspicious and suspicious areas of 18 fresh conisation specimens immediately after resection (0 hour) and 1, 2, 3, and 4 hours, referred to as waiting times in the following, postoperatively and compared to the corresponding histology. For each 2D-OCT-image, a 1D-intensity profile was generated. The profiles were analyzed with respect to systematic differences which may result from different waiting times, employing ...