Credit: the University of Oklahoma.
University of Oklahoma researchers have developed a revolutionary imaging technique that can be used to improve pancreatic cancer detection. The technique is 10 times more powerful than current methods, allowing for the detection of pancreatic cancer cells that are the width of an eyelash.
The novel imaging technique utilizes a new contrast agent that identifies the cancer cell, paired with Multispectral Optoacoustic Tomography (MSOT). The combination of imaging techniques improves pancreatic cancer detection limits at the microscopic level, about 200 microns, a large improvement over current CT methods that require a cancer cell to be around a centimeter to detect.
“Pancreatic cancer is one of the hardest cancers to cure because it is difficult to detect cancer cells at the microscopic level,” said Ajay Jain, M.D. professor of surgery at the OU College of Medicine. “Because there are usually no early symptoms of pancreatic cancer, it is typically not diagnosed until after it has spread, and outcomes are very poor — about a 9% overall chance of survival. Surgery and chemotherapy offer the patients the best chance, but for surgery to work, we have to remove all the cancer, and that is difficult to do.”
To improve this poor detection at the early stage the researchers first developed a contrast agent that is unique to pancreatic cancer cells. Once delivered via an IV, it differentiates pancreatic cancer cells due to their relative acidity. Once this acidic environment is encountered, the dye “turns on”. When paired with MSOT, which utilizes infrared light to stimulate the dye, an image is produced with enough detail to capture pancreatic cancer cells that would previously have been missed.
“This is a hybrid approach that accomplishes what a CT cannot,” said Lacey McNally, Ph.D. “Pancreatic cancer often creates tentacles that spread out beyond the primary tumor. Currently, there is no way for the surgeon to know where they are. But if the surgery team can use this MSOT approach in the operating room, it can tell them in real time where the cancer has metastasized so they can remove it.”
The methods developed could revolutionize pancreatic cancer treatment by offering a means for early detection that has not been possible in the past. “Early detection of pancreatic cancer offers the best chance of a cure,” Jain said. “If we could detect the cancer at an early, microscopic stage, it could be curable.”