Targeted ultrasonic contrast enhancement

结直肠癌，也被称为肠癌，是英国已知的第四种常见癌症。目前可用的各种治疗方法，包括化疗和手术切除受影响的区域，构成了并发症的风险，从而对患者的健康和生活方式造成影响。目前，直肠癌的分期和原发部位主要采用结肠镜、MRI和CT。这些可能局限于确定预后因素，如淋巴转移和直肠壁的壁内和壁外侵犯。开发一种能够检测这些特征的成像模式不仅可以早期发现，而且还可以进行个性化治疗和手术需求。这可以改善患者的生活质量。经皮内注射后，对比增强超声已被证明可以识别乳腺癌的前哨淋巴结[1]。在这个项目中，我们的目标是开发针对特定生物标志物的内部最佳大小的超声造影剂，以可视化直肠壁内侵犯的淋巴转移。这些方法将在以后的直肠癌模型中进行体外和体内试验。参考文献：1.Server AR，Mills P，Jones SE Mari W，Jones PA Sentinel使用微泡和超声造影识别前哨淋巴结。临床放射学2012 67：687-694。

Colorectal cancer, also termed as bowel cancer, is the fourth commonest known cancer in the UK. The various treatments available currently including chemotherapy and surgery to remove the affected areas, poses a risk of complications and consequent impacts on health and lifestyle of the patients. Currently colonoscopy, MRI and CT are used for the staging of rectal cancer and its primary position. These can be limited in defining prognostic factors such as lymph node involvement and intra and extra mural invasion in the rectal wall. Development of an imaging modality that could detect these features would enable not only early detection but will also allow personalized treatment and the need of the surgery. This can subsequently improve patient's quality of life.Contrast-enhanced ultrasound has been proven to identify sentinel lymph nodes in breast cancer after intradermal injection (1). In this project, we aim to develop in-house optimal size ultrasound contrast agents targeted to specific biomarkers to visualize the lymph node metastases due to intramural invasion of rectal wall. These will be tested in vitro and in vivo in rectal cancer models at a later stage. Reference: 1. Sever AR, Mills P, Jones SE Mali W, Jones PA Sentinel node identification using microbubbles and contrast-enhanced ultrasonography. Clinical Radiology 2012 67: 687-694.