Raman Probe for Bronchial Premalignant Lesions

描述（由申请人提供）：长期目标是一种实用的临床拉曼仪器，配有光纤探头，与支气管镜配合使用，用于表征支气管组织的癌前状态。该系统将特别有效地与新一代的支气管镜，其具有通过使用自体荧光或其他光谱成像方法增强的筛查功效。 由于肺癌是人类第二常见的癌症，是世界上癌症死亡的最常见原因，并且具有非常低（14%）的五年存活率，因此可以容易地与正常支气管镜检查程序一起使用的仪器将通过使得能够对可疑景象进行真实的时间检查而增加临床医学价值，相对于单独的白色光支气管镜检查具有增强的灵敏度。这将使得从选择用于活检的那些部位获得更大的“阳性”产量。 第一阶段的具体目标是：（1）使用自由空间传播光束，在830 nm的激发波长下从正常、发育异常和癌性肺组织的体外样品中获取拉曼光谱。(2)小直径、过滤、光纤拉曼探针的生产和测试，适用于通过支气管镜的活检通道插入。(3)开发实时数据分析算法，该算法可以根据文献中描述的特征签名指示观察到的组织的状态。将获得体外支气管组织的基本拉曼数据，以辅助探头设计和算法开发。将设计、制造探针，并将其与拉曼原型仪器一起用于体外支气管组织样本，以与建模计算进行比较，并证明在临床检查中与支气管镜结合使用的实时体内仪器的可行性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term objective is a practical clinical Raman instrument with a fiberoptic probe, for use with a bronchoscope, for characterizing bronchial tissue with respect to precancerous conditions. The system will be especially effective with a new generation of bronchoscopes that have their screening efficacy enhanced by use of auto-fluorescence or other spectroscopic imaging methods. Since lung cancer is the second most common cancer in humans, is the most common cause of cancer deaths in the world, and has a very low (14%) five year survival rate, an instrument that can be easily utilized with normal bronchoscopy procedures will add clinical medical value by enabling real time examination of suspicious sights, with enhanced sensitivity relative to white light bronchoscopy alone. This will enable greater yield of "positives" from those sites that are chosen for biopsy. The Specific Aims for Phase I are: (1) The acquisition of Raman spectra at an excitation wavelength of 830 nm from in-vitro samples of normal, dysplastic and cancerous lung tissue, using free-space propagating beams. (2) The production and testing of a small-diameter, filtered, fiberoptic Raman probe, suitable for insertion through the biopsy channel of a bronchoscope. (3) The development of real-time data analysis algorithms which can indicate the state of the observed tissue on the basis of characteristic signatures described in the literature. Basic Raman data will be obtained on in vitro bronchial tissue to assist probe design and algorithm development. Probes will be designed, fabricated and used with a Raman prototype instrument on in vitro bronchial tissue samples to compare with modeling calculations and demonstrate feasibility of a real-time in vivo instrument for use in conjunction with a bronchoscope in clinical examinations.