DEVELOPMENT OF DIFFUSE OPTICS FOR BREAST CANCER IMAGING AND MONITORING

该子项目是利用 由NIH/NCRR资助的中心赠款提供的资源。子项目和 研究者（PI）可能从另一个NIH来源获得主要资金， 因此可以在其他CRISP条目中表示。列出的机构是 中心，不一定是研究者的机构。 乳腺癌是全世界妇女最常见的癌症之一。为了降低死亡率 由于乳腺癌的发病率，在筛查、诊断和 对癌症的治疗监测是必要的。漫射光学成像和光谱学方法 为这些应用提供新的工具。光学方法利用非电离辐射 (e.g.红光到红外光），是非侵入性的或最小侵入性的，是廉价的， 简单快速。这些方法提供了几个基于功能过程的独特参数 在组织中具有增强乳腺肿瘤敏感性和特异性的潜力。 组织光学 吸收系数提供对血液动力学、总血红蛋白浓度、血液 氧饱和度、水浓度和脂质含量。这些组织特性通常 在快速生长的肿瘤中显著不同;例如，高浓度的血红蛋白 低血氧饱和度提示由于其高代谢， 需求和（有时）灌注不良。另一方面，细胞器数量的增加， 特别是线粒体或细胞核，有时伴随着更高的代谢活动， 快速生长的肿瘤，并导致肿瘤的光学散射系数增加。 最后，光学吸收，荧光和散射的外源性造影剂，占据 血管和血管外空间也提供了有用的敏化形式。沿着这些路线， 在乳房的漫射光学成像方面的进展对于利用在以下领域中的进展是关键的 分子影像学是一个新兴的医学领域，具有广阔的发展前景 造影剂。

This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women worldwide. To lower the death rate due to breast cancer, significant improvements in the areas of screening, diagnosis, and therapy monitoring of cancer are imperative. Diffuse optical imaging and spectroscopy methods promise new tools for these applications. The optical methods utilize non-ionizing radiation (e.g. red to infrared light), are non-invasive or minimally-invasive, are inexpensive, technologically simple and fast. These methods provide several unique parameters based on functional processes in tissues with potential to enhance breast tumor sensitivity and specificity. Tissue optical absorption coefficients provide access to blood dynamics, total hemoglobin concentration, blood oxygen saturation, water concentration and lipid content. These tissue properties are often substantially different in rapidly growing tumors; for example, high concentrations of hemoglobin with low oxygen saturation are suggestive of rapidly growing tumors due to their high metabolic demand and (sometimes) poor perfusion. In a different vein, an increase in organelle population, particularly mitochondria or nuclei, sometimes accompanies the higher metabolic activity of the rapidly growing tumor, and leads to an increase of optical scattering coefficients for the tumor. Finally, optical absorption, fluorescence, and scattering of exogenous contrast agents that occupy vascular and extravascular space also provide useful forms of sensitization. Along these lines, advances in diffuse optical imaging of breast are critical for exploitation of advances in the field of Molecular Imaging, an emerging area of medicine promising development of new generation contrast agents.