Pressure-enhanced near-infrared breast cancer imaging

描述(申请人提供)：应聘者在转专业为乳腺癌光学断层扫描之前，曾在光电子学领域工作过。应聘者的长期职业目标是成为一名独立研究人员，在光电子和生物医学领域拥有独特的一套知识和丰富的经验，并能够致力于开发诊断医学应用的新工具。候选人的近期目标是开发一种近红外(NIR)断层成像系统，具有快速成像乳房内总血红蛋白(HBT)、血氧饱和度(StO2)、水浓度、散射功率(SP)和散射幅度(SA)的长期和短期变化的能力。此外，利用该系统建立了一种动态压力增强近红外乳腺癌成像方法。达特茅斯学院在医学和工程学研究生教育领域拥有大量资源。达特茅斯-希区柯克医疗中心的诺里斯·科顿癌症中心被评为全国50家最佳治疗和研究中心之一。在这种良好的环境下，候选人的研究生涯将通过(I)参加医学工程、组织生物化学和生物统计学的课程，(Ii)参加相关活动，讲座，(Iii)参加诺里斯棉花癌症中心的小组会议，(Iv)在最相关的学术医学会议上展示研究成果，以及(V)参加临床评估和规划会议来发展。候选人的研究项目是开发一种采用优化的人体方案的动态压力增强近红外乳腺癌成像系统。近红外多光谱成像是一种独特的工具，通过提供HBT、StO2、水浓度、SP和SA的图像来表征女性乳房组织成分的变化。测量乳腺组织在不同压力下的长期和短期反应的差异，可以提高乳腺癌检测的对比度和分辨率。这将为组织的光学弹性成像提供一个独特的系统。该方案的总体目标是建立一种活体光弹增强乳腺癌检测技术，以提高乳腺癌表征的对比度和分辨率。我们假设正常的乳腺组织会变形，并具有较强的动态和塑性变形反应，而相比之下，肿瘤组织的动态和塑性反应较低。这项研究将通过以下方式进行：1)改进现有的近红外多光谱系统，使其能够对HBT、StO2、水分浓度、SP和SA乳房内的长期和短期变化进行成像；2)使用改进的近红外系统了解HBT、StO2、水分浓度、SP和SA相对于乳腺组织成分的活体长期和短期压力响应；3)建立程序并获得初步数据，以确定这种动态方法进行乳腺癌成像的最大对比度和分辨率的最佳条件。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The candidate has worked in the optoelectronics field before changing her field of study to breast cancer optical tomography. The long-term career goal of the candidate is to be an independent researcher who has a unique set of knowledge and breadth of experience in both the Optoelectronics and biomedical fields, and can work to develop new tools for diagnostic medical applications. The immediate goal of the candidate is to develop a Near-Infrared (NIR) tomography system to have capabilities of rapidly imaging both long-term and short-term changes within the breast of total hemoglobin (HbT), oxygen saturation (StO2), water concentration, scattering power (SP) and scattering amplitude (SA). Furthermore, to establish a procedure of dynamic pressure-enhanced near-infrared breast cancer imaging by such a system. Dartmouth College has significant resources in the field of medical and engineering graduate education. Norris Cotton Cancer Center at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center has been ranked as one of the 50 best treatment and research centers in the country. In this excellent environment, the candidate's research career will be developed by (i) taking courses in medical engineering, tissue biochemistry and biostatistics, (ii) taking part in related events, lectures, (iii) attending group meetings at the Norris Cotton Cancer Center, (iv) presenting research results at the most pertinent academic medical conferences, and (v) attending clinical evaluation and planning meetings. The research project of the candidate is to develop a dynamic pressure-enhanced NIR breast cancer imaging system with an optimized human protocol. NIR multi-spectral imaging is a unique tool for characterization of tissue composition changes in the female breast by providing images of HbT, StO2, water concentration, SP and SA. Measurement of the differences between long term and short term responses of breast tissue under different applied pressures has the capability of enhancing the contrast and resolution of breast cancer detection. This will provide a unique system for optical-elastic imaging of tissue. The overall goal of this proposal is to establish a vivo optical-elastic enhanced breast cancer detection technique to improve the contrast and resolution of breast cancer characterization. We hypothesize that normal breast tissue will deform and have strong dynamic and plastic deformation responses, whereas tumor tissue will have a lower dynamic and plastic response in comparison. The research will be carried out by 1) improving the current NIR multi-spectral system to have capabilities of imaging both long-term and short-term changes within the breast of HbT, StO2 ,water concentration, SP and SA; 2) using the improved NIR system to understand vivo long-term and short-term pressure responses of HbT, StO2, water concentration, SP and SA with respect to the breast tissue composition; and 3) to establish procedures and obtain initial data as to the optimal conditions for maximal contrast and resolution in this dynamic approach to breast cancer imaging.