TimmyHCancer, Carefully Illuminated
December 12th 2008 23:45
A new imaging probe brings live cancer cells into sharp relief.
In order to pinpoint tumors in the body and successfully remove them, surgeons rely heavily on medical imaging--x-ray, MRI, and CT scans--to light the way. From these images, a surgeon can tell a tumor's location and anatomy, or its size and shape. However, in many cases, medical images don't paint a clear enough picture. These images may light up healthy tissue surrounding a tumor, along with the tumor itself, and may leave smaller tumors, particularly at the millimeter scale, in the dark. Surgeons who depend on these images may end up leaving behind smaller tumors that could later grow and spread or removing healthy tissue that appeared to be cancerous.
Now a team of researchers at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the University of Tokyo have developed a new imaging probe that specifically targets and illuminates tumors, even at the submillimeter scale. The scientists designed the fluorescent probe to seek out and grab on to specific receptors on a tumor's surface, and activate, or light up, only when the probe has made it inside a cancer cell. The researchers reasoned that this targeted infiltration ensures that nothing but tumors are illuminated. The team injected the fluorescent probe into mice and was able to see live breast-cancer cells that had spread to their lungs.
"The first time we got this result, it was really exciting," says Hisataka Kobayashi, chief scientist of NCI's Molecular Imaging Program. "Only the tumor lit up, and nothing else, sort of like a sign in the dark sky, and it was really a beautiful view."
By Jennifer Chu
Really Long Link
In order to pinpoint tumors in the body and successfully remove them, surgeons rely heavily on medical imaging--x-ray, MRI, and CT scans--to light the way. From these images, a surgeon can tell a tumor's location and anatomy, or its size and shape. However, in many cases, medical images don't paint a clear enough picture. These images may light up healthy tissue surrounding a tumor, along with the tumor itself, and may leave smaller tumors, particularly at the millimeter scale, in the dark. Surgeons who depend on these images may end up leaving behind smaller tumors that could later grow and spread or removing healthy tissue that appeared to be cancerous.
Seeing green: A new fluorescent probe illuminates live tumors in the lungs of mice. At left, conventional fluorescent probes light up tumors as well as healthy tissue, whereas the new probe (right) lights up tumors without illuminating the background.
"The first time we got this result, it was really exciting," says Hisataka Kobayashi, chief scientist of NCI's Molecular Imaging Program. "Only the tumor lit up, and nothing else, sort of like a sign in the dark sky, and it was really a beautiful view."
By Jennifer Chu
Really Long Link
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