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Photoacoustic Detection of Circulating Tumor Cells
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In Lay Terms: This research project focuses on the use of a tunable laser to excite the circulating tumor cells, which will then give off photoacoustic waves. These waves can then be detected and the circulating cells can be identified.
Detection of disseminating tumour cells among patients suffering from variable types and degrees of cancer can function as an early warning system, alerting the metastatic spread or recurrence of the disease. The detection of such cells can result in preventative treatment of the disease as well as serving as an indicator of the effectiveness of chemotherapeutics. At present, this detection remains a daunting task, often resulting in time consuming, inaccurate screening of lymph nodes or bone marrow. Given these premises, one may realize the urgent need for an efficient, accurate detection method for metastatic tumour cells. The circulating tumour cell project proposes a new system for the detection of metastatic circulating tumour cells based upon the photoacoustic properties of melanoma and similar microscopic units. The method employs a novel detection system capable of exposing disseminating cells present in the haematogenous system. Thus possessing the possibility of efficiently detecting low levels of harmful cells in a clinical setting. Thus far, detection trials consisting of varying concentrations of imitation cells have proven successful validating the effectiveness of the proposed mechanism as a detector. Future progress consists of applying this novel detection method to discover the presence of metastatic tumour cells in the blood stream of cancerous patients.