Microscope checks cancer biopsies in 3-D
SEATTLE: A versatile lightsheet microscope developed at the University of Washington can provide surgeons with real-time pathology data to guide cancer-removal surgeries and can also non-destructively examine tumour biopsies in 3-D.
When women undergo lumpectomies to remove breast cancer, doctors try to remove all the cancerous tissue while conserving as much of the healthy breast tissue as possible.
But currently there’s no reliable way to determine during surgery whether the excised tissue is completely cancer-free at its margins — the proof that doctors need to be confident that they removed all of the tumour. It can take several days for pathologists using conventional methods to process and analyse the tissue.
That’s why between 20 and 40 per cent of women have to undergo second, third or even fourth breast-conserving surgeries to remove cancerous cells that were missed during the initial procedure, according to studies.
A new microscope invented by a
If we can rapidly image the entire surface or margin of the excised tissue during the procedure, we can tell them if they still have tumour left in the body or not. And that would be a huge benefit to cancer patients. — Jonathan Liu, mechanical engineering professor
team of University of Washington mechanical engineers and pathologists could help solve this, and other, problems. It can rapidly and non-destructively image the margins of large fresh tissue specimens with the same level of detail as traditional pathology — in no more than 30 minutes.
“Surgeons are sort of flying blind during these breastconserving surgeries,” said mechanical engineering professor Jonathan Liu. “Oftentimes they’ve left some tumour behind which they don’t know about until a few days later when the pathologist finds it.”
“If we can rapidly image the entire surface or margin of the excised tissue during the procedure, we can tell them if they still have tumour left in the body or not. And that would be a huge benefit to cancer patients,” Liu said.
The new light-sheet microscope — which is described in a new paper published in Nature Biomedical Engineering — offers other advantages over existing processes and microscope technologies.
It conserves valuable tissue for genetic testing and diagnosis, quickly and accurately images the irregular surfaces of large clinical specimens, and allows pathologists to zoom in and “see” biopsy samples in three dimensions.
“The tools we use in pathology have changed little over the past century,” said co-author Nicholas Reder, chief resident and clinical research fellow in UW Medicine’s Department of Pathology. “This light-sheet microscope represents a major advance for pathology and cancer patients, allowing us to examine tissue in minutes rather than days and to view it in three dimensions instead of two — which will ultimately lead to improved clinical care.” — UW News