Researchers at Johns Hopkins University are developing a new diagnostic modality for identification of brain tumors. Using optical coherence tomography, a technique in which laser light is shined into tissue and analyzed how it scatters, the team hopes to differentiate tumors from healthy brain parenchyma, and that may help avoid risky biopsies. Although development of the technology has progressed significantly, animal and human trials are still in the works.
To give doctors this detailed view of brain tissue, Kang’s device employs ultra-thin optical fiber, the material used in long-distance communication systems, to direct harmless low-powered laser light onto the area the surgeon wants to examine. When the light strikes the tissue, most of it bounces away in a scattered, incoherent manner. But using a technique called optical coherence tomography, the small portion of light that is scattered back can be collected and used to construct a high-resolution three-dimensional picture of the tissue, down to the cellular level. These images are significantly sharper than those produced by MRI or ultrasound equipment, Kang says, and should give surgeons a better look at the boundaries of a tumor and the presence of blood vessels and healthy tissue that must be preserved.
Yet, compared to the older, widely used imaging systems, the new technology is expected to be much less expensive, perhaps less than $10,000. “It’s a very simple and cost-effective system,” Kang says.
Full report from Johns Hopkins: New Optical Tool Could Produce ‘Virtual Biopsies’ in Brain Cancer Cases …
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